Robert Motherwell: At Home and In the Studio to Open March 22 at The New York Public Library

February 19, 2025—On March 22, The New York Public Library will open an exhibition of a selection of Robert Motherwell’s prints from the 1960s to 1991, alongside annotated books from his private library. Taken together, the prints and books illuminate how Motherwell’s literary influences helped inspire his artistic process and signature style. The prints and titles on display were gifted to The New York Public Library by the artist’s family and the Dedalus Foundation, which Motherwell established in 1981 to enhance the public understanding and appreciation of modern art and the principles of Modernism. 

“The prints and books in this gift reflect the broad range of Motherwell’s interests,” said Katy Rogers, President of the Dedalus Foundation, “and show how intensely he was engaged with both art and literature, which informed his creation of one of the most varied, complex, and vital bodies of work in modern art.”

Raised on the West Coast, Motherwell (1915-1991) studied literature and philosophy at Stanford  University where he cultivated a lifelong admiration of James Joyce, Federico García Lorca, Stéphane Mallarmé, Octavio Paz, and a wide range of philosophers and composers. It wasn’t until he moved to New York in 1940, where he was introduced to Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and other European artists in exile, that he truly devoted himself to his art practice. Seizing on the principles of automatic drawing, Motherwell began plumbing his subconscious for artistic inspiration and developing what would later become his signature pictorial language. His style and creative approach helped inaugurate a new art movement – Abstract Expressionism – and continues to influence artists today.  

In addition to painting, Motherwell was a prolific printmaker, referring to paper as “the most sympathetic of all painting surfaces.” Robert Motherwell: At Home and in the Studio, comprised of 24 prints gifted from the Dedalus Foundation, 14 volumes from his private library gifted from the family, and video clips of Motherwell working in his Greenwich, Connecticut studio, offers an intimate glimpse into Motherwell’s passion for both prints and the printed word. Volumes on display include Joyce’s Ulysses and a heavily annotated copy of Otto Rank’s Art & Artist, while the prints span the period from 1962 to 1991. 

“Motherwell was unique among his artworld contemporaries in that he was also an editor, critic, writer, and teacher. This exhibition heralds him as a prolific reader alongside the trajectory of his printmaking process,” said Clare Bell, Associate Director of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs at the New York Public Library. 

Robert Motherwell: At Home and In the Studio will open simultaneously with Dynamic Duos: The Art of Working in Pairs, marking the first time in the history of the Library that two exhibitions devoted to the visual arts are on display at the same time, underscoring the Library’s growing arts collections.

“For over a century, The New York Public Library has championed discovery, creativity, and learning for all. Our growing visual arts collections are critical to that mission, and with the launch of Dynamic Duos and Robert Motherwell: At Home and In the Studio, we celebrate a new milestone in making the Library’s visual holdings more accessible and inspiring than ever,” said Brent Reidy, Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries at The New York Public Library.

The Motherwell exhibition will be on display in the Wachenheim Gallery at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building until August 2, 2025. This exhibition has been made possible by the continuing generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

About The New York Public Library

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