Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)

The year 1958 was an extremely fertile period of Robert Motherwell's career and also marked a major personal milestone. He painted this work around the time of his marriage to the artist Helen Frankenthaler in April of that year. The work plays a significant role in demonstrating his feeling towards his new bride as they tend to do within the canvases of this period. One sees a merging of two black edifices in a field of ochre and white. The two forms, which Motherwell tooks pains to differentiate from each other, seem to swell and engulf the space around them, as they emerge in one assertive, grand shape.
While the work exhibits the artist's signature use of black and white, it is the color ochre that conveys a sense of primitive timelessness. This work references Motherwell's first visit to Spain and the Lascaux caves in France as part of his honeymoon itinerary. For the artist the ideal "Mediterranean" state loomed large in his imagination, and is evident in the present work.