Robert Motherwell

Dedalus Foundation, Inc., New York
Private Collection
Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2003

Mexico City, Museo Rufino Tamayo; Museo de Monterrey; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Robert Motherwell: The Open Door, September 1991 - April 1992, cat. no. 31, p. 74, illustrated in color

Kathy Windrow, Robert Motherwell: The Open Door, Fort Worth, 1992, n.p., illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges. There two linear creases toward the bottom right edge of the painting, which have resulted in very fine and stable craquelure to the paint. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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For Robert Motherwell, titling a work was not an exercise of strict description, but, rather of suggestion. The title of this work, The Studio, provides a preliminary association and context for what this scene might depict. In viewing the work, however, the interior space is ambiguous and abstract, different than the viewer's initial expectation. What one does recognize, instead, is a scene that has successfully combined many of the artist’s widely used and recognized formal characteristics and motifs. By placing these elements together in a studio setting, this work of Motherwell’s late oeuvre exudes a high degree of self-reflection.

The most immediate and striking element of this work is the red background, which provides an eye-catching backdrop to the rich blues, blacks, greens and yellows in the foreground of the canvas. Having been profoundly influenced by his early trips in Mexico, Motherwell translated these travels into his painting through the saturated, vibrant colors of his subsequent canvases. In the center of the canvas, are two bulbous black forms reminiscent of Motherwell’s Elegy series. Such black forms were at the heart of the series’ pictorial language, which served as a response to the Spanish Civil War, an event that morally consumed the artist. The thin black lines, which are reoccurring in this work, are often incorporated in Motherwell’s paintings. The most well-known representations of these line constructions were the rectangle forms that made up his Open series. These forms created a window-like mechanism to the open space with which they were set against. The black lines in this painting, although not formally exact to those in the Open series, create a similar intimate and painterly quality which contributed greatly to the artist’s overall expressionist style.  

The artist studio is a commonly explored art historical subject. One of the most well-known examples is Henri Matisse’s masterpiece The Red Studio, from 1911. The vibrant red color that makes up the space and the display of Matisse’s own paintings and sculpture within the room correlate directly to Motherwell’s depiction of his own studio. By filling the studios with their own retrospective, one can sense the profound presence of each artist within the canvas. For Motherwell an exploration of his history is fitting as he was an artist who “carried everything along with him in his personal continuum.” (Dore Ashton, Robert Motherwell, Locks Gallery, 1992, p. 8).