Robert Motherwell valuation
The scholar of Abstract Expressionism, who painted a hundred elegies to a war he never fought in.
Robert Motherwell was born in Aberdeen, Washington in 1915, studied philosophy at Stanford and Harvard and art history at Columbia under Meyer Schapiro, and was the most articulate spokesman his generation had — he edited the Documents of Modern Art series and did much to explain what the New York painters were doing.
What a work by Robert Motherwell is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Bio
Robert Motherwell was born in Aberdeen, Washington in 1915, studied philosophy at Stanford and Harvard and art history at Columbia under Meyer Schapiro, and was the most articulate spokesman his generation had — he edited the Documents of Modern Art series and did much to explain what the New York painters were doing. Elegy to the Spanish Republic, begun in 1948 and continued in over a hundred versions, sets heavy black ovoids between vertical bars, a form he never fully explained. He also made the Open series, and a great deal of collage. He died in 1991.
The Elegies lead the market, with scale and date the principal drivers. The Dedalus Foundation maintains the catalogue raisonne and handles authentication, and this matters more than usual here: a significant number of forgeries attributed to Motherwell were sold through the Knoedler gallery and were exposed in the litigation that closed it, so provenance to that source is a specific red flag. Collages are unique and are a strong part of the output. The prints, published largely with Tyler Graphics and Universal Limited Art Editions, are extensive and well documented.
At a glance
- Born
- 24 January 1915, Aberdeen
- Died
- 16 July 1991, Provincetown
- Movement
- Abstract Expressionism
More on Wikipedia.
The Elegies, the school and the catalogues
The first image that led to the Elegies to the Spanish Republic was made in 1948, the year Motherwell co-founded the short-lived Subjects of the Artist school in New York with William Baziotes, Barnett Newman, David Hare and Mark Rothko. The series ran to well over a hundred paintings over the following decades.
The Dedalus Foundation's catalogue raisonné of the paintings and collages was published in 2012, and the prints have their own catalogue. A painting or collage offered for sale should be found in the first, and given the Knoedler forgeries, a work that is not there needs the Foundation's opinion.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
