Henry Moore

Reclining Figures

1940

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) Untitled 1990 Acrylic and coloured pencil on panel 40.6 x 50.8 cms (16 x 20 ins) RM13143 P1195 The composition of this painting is based on the left ...

Paul Cézanne Le Sentier ca. 1890 Watercolour and pencil on paper 34.6 x 51.5 cms (13 5/8 x 20 1/4 ins) PC16325 Provenance: Walther Halvorsen, Oslo Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris Ju...

Stanley Spencer Sword of the Lord c.1935 Pencil on paper 17.8 x 25.4 cms (7 x 10 ins) SS8308

Robert Motherwell Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110C 1968 Acrylic and graphite on paper 15.2 x 20.3 cms (6 x 8 ins) Robert Motherwell's Elegies series represent one of the iconic motifs of Abstract Expressionism.  Based on a 1948 ink illustration the artist executed accompanying a Harold Rosenberg poem, “A Bird for every bird,” the drawing shows the hypnotically repetitive patterning of ovoids and vertical beams.  The stark contrast of the black ink on white paper references the symbolic use of the color black by artists such as Goya, Manet and Matisse to convey death, loss, and tragedy.  Motherwell was quite affected by the turbulence of the Spanish Civil War and alludes to the Spanish republic in his Elegies. Motherwell’s plumbing the depths of poetry, history, and primordial art in the Elegies is considered a hallmark of nascent Abstract Expressionist painting in its desire to "excavate" essential imagery of mankind. Motherwell, who originally trained as a philosophy scholar and later became of the great editors of 20th century art documents, grasped very early on the crucial importance that in order to contribute meaningfully to the canon of modern art, one must create a principle of aesthetics. Through the surrealist concept of automatism, the artist finally found the creative principle that eventually governed his extraordinary artistic output and produced the Elegies, one of the most salient, immediate painterly images of 20th century abstract painting. In fact, he has alluded to the fact that each one of his Elegies begins as an automatic drawing, and certain shapes are then blocked to create the signature armature of the vertical bars and ovals. The Elegies seem to possess the power of an archetypal image, an image the mind already grasps on a subconscious level. Motherwell's play of dualities of black and white as well as other dichotomies—the geometric versus the organic, chaos versus order, death versus life—was a condition of living through a tumultuous period in American history. During an interview, he vividly recalled the 1940s as the time when society was ordered by a set of contradictions.  In Motherwell's Elegies, he not only discovered an incredibly elastic pictorial language that would communicate on multiple levels but also acknowledged these contradictions in a manner that would resonate in abstract form.  The present work served as a model for a painting, Spanish Elegy...

Alexander Ross Untitled, 2007 Watercolor, colored pencil, gouache and graphite on paper Framed Dimensions: 28 x 25.5 inches (71.1 x 64.8 cm) Image Dimensions: 23 x 22 inches (58.4 ...

Artist: Rodney Alan Greenblat, American (1960 - ) Title: Intrepid Year: 1989 Medium: Gouache and Color Pencil on paper, signed Size: 10 in. x 16 in. (25.4 cm x 40.64 cm) Frame S...

Artist: Red Grooms Title: Study for Way Down East Year: circa 1965 Medium: Color Pencil and Watercolor on Paper, Signed verso Size: 17.5 x 22 inches Frame: 26 x 32 inches "Way Down East" is best known as a 1920 American silent romantic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish...

Lydia Viscardi is best known for her representational mixed media collages that combine highly detailed realistic painted and drawn imagery with flat shapes cut out from patterned pa...