Page 23 - Studio International - March 1966

character as an artist or reconcilable with what he Remember Degas teasing Mary Cassat, whom he
actually does. (His work is outside and beyond abstract liked, when she was painting mothers and children:
expressionism.) His 'credos' seem self-contradictory 'There's another Infant Jesus with a nice. Boston
sometimes, over-emphatic and oracular, laced with nanny'—Degas saluted the extraordinary qualities of
modest disclaimers. The paintings should speak for her painting but was aware of its basic un-European-
themselves. But his intelligence extends further. ness.
14 Motherwell's allegiances to certain aspects of Euro- Similarly, Robert Motherwell's European references—
pean culture are central but ambiguous in their result. and they are not constant, he cannot be pegged down
so easily—are sometimes in inverted commas: they
are unrhetorical but a specifically American use is made
Beside the sea 1962 of them. Think of the edginess in Turner's use of what he
28 3/4 x 22 3/4 in.
Oil on paper considered 'Venetian' colour. Many more examples for
Collection: The Artist
Motherwell, beginning with misplaced dislike for Dufy
as slight instance of distrust, approval of Genet as good
extrusion of the approved 'tradition'. Only an American
could say that 'little pictures are for midgets or for
tourists—souvenirs'. Where are Fouquet, Van Eyck,
Memling, that French Pieta in the Frick Collection ?
But only Americans could re-charge art with scale.
Motherwell as a man and what he is doing and what
makes it the way it is — record the fact that the
pessimism, rage and sheer weight of his insights into
life are continually counterbalanced through benign
concern for friends, an indestructible sense of justice,
and great warmth of heart. That large, curiously self-
deprecating frame has authority and is without petti-
ness. His relish for good food and drink, adoration of
the Mediterranean world and for all gaiety and
warmth, and delight in beautifully-made objects —
all this and much more is tinged also by a constant
awareness of the sadness, transitoriness and imper-
fection of life, human motive and conduct.
Robert Motherwell is a stoic, keeping despair at bay.
This is only too human, and altogether very much like
the general nature and weight of his work so far ... q

Africa 1964-65
81 x 222 1/2 in. Acrylic on canvas
Collection: The Baltimore Museum of Art