Nationality
American
Artist Dates
1915-1991
Preview
Date of Work
1973
Medium
Lift-ground etching and aquatint
Edition #
71/100
Signature
Lower right
Height
55" (framed)
Width
42 1/2" (framed)
Collection/Provenance
Published by The Committee to Endow a Chair in Honor of Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996) at Columbia University.
Art & Design Study Collection
Status
Stored: R06
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
Artist Bio
Robert Motherwell studied art history, philosophy, and literature at Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia. Recognized as a spokesperson and theorist for modern art, as well as a very prominent Abstract Expressionist painter, he had little formal training in studio art.
Additional Information
The artwork on display by Motherwell is from the For Meyer Schapiro print portfolio. The thick painterly black lines in Motherwell’s print reveal a preoccupation with automatist methods, which involved the artist’s reliance on instinct or intuition as he worked. While the resulting image is seemingly nonrepresentational, the print’s title refers to a tangible object—a prayer shawl worn over the head or shoulders by Jewish worshippers, which is often adorned with black stripes.
This piece is one of twelve original prints organized into a portfolio and published in recognition of Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996), a distinguished art historian who was very much appreciated by major contemporary artists of his day.
In 1974, a committee was formed to establish a Chair in Art History at Columbia University in Schapiro's honor. The portfolio, published in an edition of 100, was produced to raise funds to support the Chair. UND's set of portfolio prints are numbered 71/100.