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December 1, 2006
In abstract expressionism the "act" of painting becomes the "content" of the painting. Through gestural movements the artist is attempting to unleash their raw emotions, not paint pretty pictures.
Robert Motherwell, 2 Figures, 1958, oil on canvas
Well, if I didn't know that bit of art history then I would read the image as a pretty picture. Well not quite. What we have is a basic pictorial language.
Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 1958 synthetic polymer paint on canvas
An elegy is a short funeral song or lament--slow, meditative, and mournful. Motherwell painted more than one hundred works in the series "Elegy to the Spanish Republic", refers to the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939. They express his feelings about what happened to the people who lost. So the image conveys a particular mood. the large, black forms of the painting. The use of these black forms to cover up the colors behind would express death
Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic #34, 1953-4
Each image in the series contains black, vertically oriented elements alternating with colour forms. The colors of the Spanish Republic's flag can be seen behind the large, black forms of the painting.
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I like the colouring here very much but unfortunately I cant get past the "prawn and the vagina"