Announcing Exclusive Global Representation of Robert Motherwell

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November 9, 2022

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Robert Motherwell

Kasmin is honored to announce exclusive global representation of the work of Robert Motherwell in partnership with The Dedalus Foundation.

Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) was one of the leading American artists of the twentieth century. He worked with a wide range of imagery, which reflected his acute awareness of the richness and complexity of human experience, and he was also the leading spokesperson for the Abstract Expressionists.

The broad expressive range of his paintings includes the passionate and politically fraught Elegy to the Spanish Republic series, the austerely serene imagery of the Opens, and a large body of spontaneously executed works on canvas and paper. He was one of the most important collagists of the twentieth century, and he created a large, innovative, and highly regarded body of prints.

Motherwell was a significant writer and teacher. He edited the influential Documents of Modern Art series, which translated and presented the writings of major European modernists. Throughout his life, Motherwell affirmed the importance of Modernism, which he considered a means of freedom from dogma and the unquestioning acceptance of outdated social and cultural norms. In his view, Modernism required the artist to have the courage to face reality in all its complexity and with all its contradictions—what he called a “gallant attempt at a more adequate and accurate view of things now.”
“The Dedalus Foundation is pleased to entrust Kasmin with exclusive global representation of the art created by Robert Motherwell,” said Morgan Spangle, Executive Director of the Foundation. “Having collaborated with Kasmin on several exhibitions over the past decade, we look forward to a continued relationship which will further enhance our goal of presenting the work, ideas, and legacy of Robert Motherwell to the global public.”

Eric Gleason, Senior Director at Kasmin, says: “Kasmin’s longstanding relationship with the Dedalus Foundation has been one of the most rewarding in the gallery’s history. Robert Motherwell is an unequivocal titan in the landscape of 20th century American art, and to be further entrusted with the stewardship of his legacy is an immeasurable honor.”

On November 18, 2022, the highly anticipated exhibition Robert Motherwell Drawing: As Fast as the Mind Itself will open at the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, Texas. This will be the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s drawings ever staged. Also in November 2022, a two-volume catalogue raisonné documenting Motherwell’s 1,413 drawings will be published by Yale University Press. Authored by Katy Rogers, Programs Director and Director of the Catalogue Raisonné Project at the Dedalus Foundation, this thoroughly researched and beautifully produced publication will serve as the definitive resource on Motherwell’s drawings for years to come.

At this year’s ADAA: The Art Show, Kasmin will present works from Motherwell’s Drunk with Turpentine series, along with kinetic sculpture by George Rickey (1907–2002). Since 2015, Kasmin has staged five solo exhibitions of Motherwell’s work:
About the Artist

Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell, one of the great painters of Abstract Expressionism, is renowned for his work in painting, print and collage that combined a new visual language of gestural abstraction with the dialectical nature of the human psyche. Deeply informed by Henri Matisse, Motherwell strove to liberate color and line from its strict descriptive role and demonstrate its potential as a device by which profound emotions could be expressed through simple means. Throughout his oeuvre, Motherwell’s work is defined by pervading dialogues between European modernist traditions and a distinctive and fresh American approach to art making; pure abstraction and figuration; as well as formal and emotional modus operandi.
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