EYE CANDY

The Mother of Them All

by Fan Zhong

Robert Motherwell's Librairie Hachette

The late Abstract-Expressionist master Robert Motherwell often liked to downplay his elegant work as “artful scribbling”—just his unconscious hand wandering over a surface with a brush or pen. His hand may never have been freer than in his works on paper, which are being shown at New York’s Paul Kasmin Gallery in an exhibition opening tonight. And, in the spirit of Motherwll’s legacy as a great teacher and networker, the curator Alex Bacon asked a new generation of artists—including rising stars like Aaron Bobrow, Dean Levin, and Will Boone—to create Motherwell-inspired work of their own, which will be shown at Middlemarch in Brussels. Known as an eloquent man, Motherwell would surely think of these homages as not an echo of his oeuvre, but a conversation that spans centuries.

“Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper, 1951 – 1991” is on view through January 3, 2015 at New York’s Paul Kasmin Gallery, 515 West 27th Street. “173 East 94th Street / Chausée de Waterloo 550” is on view through December 6 at Brussels’ Middlemarch, Chausée de Waterloo 550.

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Robert Motherwell’s Untitled, 1981. © Dedalus Foundation, Inc./Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY.

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Max Frintrop’s Untitled, 2014. Courtesy of Max Frintrop and Berthold Pott Gallery, Cologne.

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Robert Motherwell’s Librairie Hachette, 1967. © Dedalus Foundation, Inc./Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY.

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Ethan Cook’s 39.331382, -120.988867, 2014. Courtesy of the Artist and T293, Naples Rome.

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Robert Motherwell’s Papeteries, 1975. Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery, in cooperation with the Dedalus Foundation.

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Nikholis Planck’s Untitled, 2014. Courtesy of the artist.

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Robert Motherwell’s German Line No. 6, 1972. Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery, in cooperation with the Dedalus Foundation.

8

Zak Kitnick’s American Ships (Learning), 2014. Copyright Zak Kitnick, courtesy the artist and Clifton Benevento, New York.