Automatism Elegy (State II Buff)

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Throughout his career Motherwell was drawn to automatism. However, unlike the Surrealists who believed art should be free of any conscious control, Motherwell sought to create a balance between automatism and formal beauty. Splashing, dropping, pouring, smudging, and doodling were all automatic elements of his technique and allowed him to find meaning within what emerged through color and paint. ‘The function of art, he wrote, is to express reality as felt. In saying this we must remember that ideas modify feelings... by feeling is meant the response of the “body-and mind” as a whole to the events of reality.’ The Elegy to the Spanish Republic series, was, according to Motherwell, not only about the Spanish civil war, but also a universal lament, a sombre reflection on people struggling everywhere to gain freedom and independence.

Automatism Elegy (State II Buff)

Robert Motherwell

Artist: Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)
Title: Automatism Elegy (State II Buff)
Medium: Lithograph on buff Arches Cover paper
Date: 1980
Sheet: 15 7/8 x 20 in : 40.3 x 50.8 cm.
Edition: From the edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist
Publisher: Published by the artist, released by Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, New York
Printer: Arnold Brooks and Maurice Sanchez for Derrière lÉtoile Studios, New York
Notes: 1 colour printed in 1 run from 1 aluminium plate: black - plate. A blind plate mark was added the exact size of the image.
Literature: Engberg 272; Dedalus Foundation online Catalogue Raisonne: No. 272 (another example illus.)
Reference: CC15-26