Robert Motherwell: Collage – ARTBOOK|D.A.P.

A number of Robert Motherwell�s most important early works were collage-paintings, beginning with his first effort in the spring of 1943, �Pierrot�s Hat,� made while working alongside Jackson Pollock in the latter�s studio. �I took to collage like a duck to water,� Motherwell later reflected, and he continued to �play with papers� for the rest of his life, esteeming his skill in the medium as one of his �chief gifts.� Collage also helped the artist reconcile his relationship to European modernism (particularly Surrealism) on the one hand, and American Abstract Expressionism on the other. Reproducing a concise selection of collages from throughout the artist�s career in full color, this volume also includes a series of �case studies� on individual collages and broader essays by critic Mel Gooding that examine their composition, palette and literary allusions, and Motherwell�s unique position bridging Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.