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Robert Motherwell
Elegy to the Spanish Republic, No. 57, 1957-1961

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Elegy to the Spanish Republic, No. 57
Artist name
Robert Motherwell
Date created
1957-1961
Classification
painting
Medium
charcoal and oil on canvas
Dimensions
84 in. × 109 1/8 in. (213.36 cm × 277.18 cm)
Date acquired
1994
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Purchase through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis and gift of Gardiner Hempel
Copyright
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/94.383
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Motherwell on the antiwar spirit behind his Elegy paintings

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transcripts

SFX: Deep, slow, haunting music (not classical), reflecting the ominous atmosphere of the painting

 

NARRATOR:

The seeds of this painting were sewn when Robert Motherwell agreed to illustrate a friend’s poem.

 

ROBERT MOTHERWELL:

So I began to think not only about getting the brutality and aggression of his poem in some kind of abstract terms. I really conceived something that worked beautifully in black and white.

 

NARRATOR (coming in over the top of Motherwell, who continues):

Later, he rediscovered his sketches for that project.

 

MOTHERWELL:

I thought: God, that’s a beautiful idea; I should make some paintings. One day I realized there was something really obsessional about it; that it had taken on a life of its own; that it might indeed turn out to be possibly the main statement I would make in painting, and therefore I would like to connect this with something that reverberated in my mind.

 

SFX: sounds of war come in under next narration – fighting in streets, some gunfire, shouting…

 

NARRATOR:

Motherwell was horrified by the events of the Spanish Civil War. Graphic reports of street riots, anarchy, and Fascist bombing raids on innocent civilians.

 

MOTHERWELL:

To me, I mean subjectively, the Spanish War was an issue of black and white, of life and death, an overture to the Second World War which we all knew was coming.

 

NARRATOR:

He made over a hundred paintings in this series.

 

MOTHERWELL:
And it became very clear to me that abstract structures can be meaningful.

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Other Works by Robert Motherwell

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