Figure Before Blackness, Robert Motherwell

Artwork Overview

Robert Motherwell, Figure Before Blackness
Robert Motherwell, Figure Before Blackness
Robert Motherwell
Figure Before Blackness
1960
Robert Motherwell, artist
1915–1991
Figure Before Blackness, 1960
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: oil; canvas
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 213 x 277 cm
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 83.86 x 109.06 cm
Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund and the R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Fund and Gift of the Dedalus Foundation
Accession number: 1995.0036
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Archive Label 1999:
Motherwell was one of a group of artists called abstract expressionists, whose goal was to use art as a means to communicate emotions directly to the viewer, without depicting a representational subject. Motherwell's goal was to work spontaneously, free of conscious notions, using accidents and repainting frequently as he changed his mind. Figure Before Blackness contains blue areas, a circle, and a triangle barely visible beneath the areas of ochre and white. The various changes in the composition are thus visible in the finished product and viewers can have some sense of Motherwell's process in painting it.

Motherwell's quick and spontaneous working method resulted in the pattern of cracks in the black areas. He applied the black over wet white paint. When the colors dried at different rates, the black layer cracked.

Exhibitions

Art Into Art: Inspired Responses
2006–2007
Decade of Transformation: American Art of the 1960s
David Cateforis, curator
1999
20/21
Susan Earle, curator
2016–2021
20/21
Susan Earle, curator
2009–2015
20/21
Susan Earle, curator
2016–2021

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 201. I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. The American Abstract Expressionists emphasized the creative process of painting, seeking to convey their personal feelings and discover their very identity as artists through the act of making art. One such painter was Robert Motherwell, represented in the Spencer collection by a large 1960 canvas entitled Figure Before Blackness. Motherwell’s title may lead us to see an abstracted human figure in the broad vertical swath of ochre that dominates the left half of the composition. On either side of this figure loom black, mountainous shapes, surrounded by stark white. At the lower right corner, a horizontal orange band enters from the right and sprouts a dark yellow hook resembling a leaping fish. Faintly visible drawn shapes and brushstrokes beneath the surface colors indicate that Motherwell made many changes as he worked on the painting. He even turned it upside down after first signing it, and painted a new signature over the old one. Painting, for Motherwell, was a search for an authentic expression of personal feeling, and Figure Before Blackness invites an equally personal response from the viewer. From the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.
Audio Tour – Ear for Art
Audio Tour – Ear for Art
Does the black shape represent a mountain? While we tend to see things in an abstract work of art, the colors and shapes in this painting, titled Figure Before Blackness, do not mean to represent any recognizable subjects or conscious notions. The artist, Robert Motherwell, belonged to a group called Abstract Expressionists, whose goal was to use art as a means to communicate emotions directly to the viewer, without depicting a representational subject.