Altamira Elegy

Robert Motherwell

1980

Painting featuring bold, irregular shapes in the center of canvas.
Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Robert Motherwell

1915–1991

Robert Motherwell was an American painter, printmaker, writer, and editor. His first solo exhibition was at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery, New York (1944). In 1948, he co-founded the Subjects of the Artist School in New York with Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and other prominent Abstract Expressionist artists. Also during the 1940s, he taught at Black Mountain College. An important art theorist, Motherwell edited the series Documents of Modern Art, to which he contributed The Dada Painters and Poets (1951).

Related Guide

Post-Holocaust Jewish Cultural “Spaces”

1945–1973

Postwar Jewish communities created new spaces globally, as American Jews moved to suburbs, Israel established sovereign spaces, and a new European Jewish identity emerged.

You may also like

Photograph of wall with a mannequin to the left, posters with Hebrew text and an illuminated triangle on the wall, and a flag to the right.
Tooltip info icon

Dissolving Myths

Maor was a member of The Common Factor: Kibbutz, a group of artists who were interested in criticizing long-held Zionist and socialist beliefs and myths, at a time when many felt that the kibbutz…
View Source
Abstract painting with nine squares in the center.
Tooltip info icon

Untitled

Baron’s abstract collages were made from found materials, such as scraps of paper, string, and bits of fabric, which she sometimes found in junkyards. She considered them personal and political…
View Source
Sculpture in the shape of Hebrew letters, with a circular base with English and Hebrew words, set against a leafy backdrop.
Tooltip info icon

Lo Tishkach (Thou Shalt Not Forget)

Berman’s best-known work is her Holocaust memorial for the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island in Washington State. The twelve-foot-high bronze sculpture consists of stylized Hebrew…
View Source
Assemblage of feathers, photographs, and figurines of humans and animals in a hat shape.
Tooltip info icon

Feast in Paradise, No. 2

In the early 1980s, Eshel-Gershuni began making what she called “fetishes” or “impossible jewelry,” transferring her skills as a jewelry-maker to sculpture. She combined expensive materials like gold…
View Source
Abstract drawing depicting a small, sillhouetted human figure next to the word "artillery" in the middle and darker shaded bottom half with a car underneath.
Tooltip info icon

Drawing of the Lebanon War

The Lebanon War of 1982 began on 6 June, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon after repeated attacks and counter-attacks from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operating in southern Lebanon…
View Source
Industrial iron sculpture with two curved cords that meet at the top.
Tooltip info icon

Angel

Angels were a recurring theme in Dorchin’s sculptures, many of which include the word “angel” in their titles. Toward the 1980s, he began to use iron for most of his sculptures. This “angel” wall…
View Source