This lithograph by Robert Motherwell exemplifies his work as a leader of Abstract Expressionism, yet it also shows how Surrealism informed his art. In college and graduate school Motherwell studied philosophy as well as painting. No doubt this background informed his exploration of psychic automatism. Automatism, or “artful scribbling” as Motherwell called it, flowed from the artist’s unconscious mind and manifested itself as spontaneous drawing or writing. In works like this, Motherwell called on artists and viewers to connect emotion and expression, and to approach art as action.

Hannah London ‘21

Hannah London '21

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