Alexander Liberman

Painted Book

1981

Karel Appel (1921-2006) was an important contributor / sddisruptor in the evolution of 20th-century abstraction and one of the founders of the COBRA movement. Appel grew up in Amste...

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, made up the quartet of abstract painters that radically defined Modern painting in America and established New York City as the new center of the art world. Motherwell was a tremendously gifted communicator and so fell in to being the unofficial spokesman of the New York School; writing, editing a journal, and lecturing on behalf of the movement and the merits of abstraction. While his contribution to the art historical canon as a painter is undisputed, Motherwell's role as a printmaker is equally important. One of the most experimental and courageous printmakers of the 20th century, he was always searching for new techniques to express or expand his ideas and aesthetics. This lithograph is visually bold. Framed by opaque black bands, and set among a striking blue flat, sits a grey impression. Etched with subtle lines and reminiscent of Motherwell's Open paintings, the central grey rectangle and its surrounding composition come together in a paradigm of Motherwell's oeuvre. His use of grey paper is clever, as the exposed sheet on the left mingles with the applied compositional elements. This combined with the textured application throughout, force the viewer to reckon with which greys are applied, and which are the substrate showing through. "The Aberdeen Stone" is one of three visually similar "Stone" prints that refer to Motherwell's Scottish heritage, and is a particularly meaningful impression for the artist. Aberdeen is both a town in northeastern Scotland, and the birthplace of Motherwell (b. 1959, Aberdeen, Washington). Motherwell assigned titles to each of the prints that inscribe site references onto the stones used: Celtic, Douglas, and Aberdeen. While visually different, the three works were printed using the same litho stone...

Alexander Liberman (Ukrainian/American 1912-19990 Colored lithograph, signed in the lower right and dated '75 in pencil, numbered in the lower left, and presented in a chrome frame. ...

Great color and form to this work on paper by Liberman who was an important and innovative American painter and sculptor. Great visual impact as the color choices are meant to be st...