Three Figures, 1989

Highly acclaimed as one of the leading Abstract Expressionist artists of his time, Robert Motherwell created through the disciplines of printmaking and painting – his expressive paintings are immediately recognisable, often featuring bold black shapes against a background of lush colour, evidenced in works such as Wave and Pull Out All Flags. Motherwell was heavily inspired by his meeting and subsequent friendships with Surrealist artists Duchamp and Ernst, drawing heavily on their automatism concept that allows the unconscious mind to come forth and create while free of rational control. Perhaps best known for his Elegy to the Spanish Republic series - 150 separate works depicting a variety of black forms upon a white background - Motherwell was an intuitive painter known for his simple shapes and gestural brushstrokes and notably commented “Painting is a medium in which the mind can actualize itself; it is a medium of thought...[it] tends to become its own content”.