Skip to main content
Untitled (Ochre Open)
Artist
Robert Motherwell
(American, 1915 - 1991)
Date1973
MediumAcrylic and charcoal on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 77 1/4 x 96 1/2 in. (196.22 x 245.11 cm)
Framed: 79 x 98 1/4 x 2 in. (200.66 x 249.56 x 5.08 cm)
Framed: 79 x 98 1/4 x 2 in. (200.66 x 249.56 x 5.08 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase, The Friends of Art Endowment Fund
Object number1993.20
Status
Not on viewCopyright© 2020 Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Category
Label TextComing upon a small painting placed on a larger unfinished one in his studio, Robert Motherwell was so struck by their relationship that he outlined the smaller one in charcoal. The resulting series includes some of the artist’s most minimal, expansive, and seductively beautiful paintings, including Untitled (Ochre Open), 1973.
Motherwell, who coined the term “The New York School,” is closely identified with Abstract Expressionism. In the late 1940s, he embraced the tenets associated with the movement: The canvas is an arena in which the artist engages spontaneously and passionately in the physical and mental action of painting; the composition, often monumental in size, is charged with feeling; and the abstract forms suggest deep, open-ended meanings.
Like other paintings in the Open series (1967–75), Untitled (Ochre Open) consists of a large monochrome canvas with a charcoal-delineated rectangle (or three-sided, open rectangle). The composition of Untitled (Ochre Open) was partly derived from Spanish-style whitewashed adobe facades with dark, cutout doors and windows. Motherwell was particularly intrigued to experiment with the viscosity of paint and to explore the canvas as a color field, as the varied textures and densities of ochre on the canvas demonstrate. Although Motherwell linked the Open paintings to windows and walls, he regarded them as being, like all his work, open ended in meaning.
Motherwell, who coined the term “The New York School,” is closely identified with Abstract Expressionism. In the late 1940s, he embraced the tenets associated with the movement: The canvas is an arena in which the artist engages spontaneously and passionately in the physical and mental action of painting; the composition, often monumental in size, is charged with feeling; and the abstract forms suggest deep, open-ended meanings.
Like other paintings in the Open series (1967–75), Untitled (Ochre Open) consists of a large monochrome canvas with a charcoal-delineated rectangle (or three-sided, open rectangle). The composition of Untitled (Ochre Open) was partly derived from Spanish-style whitewashed adobe facades with dark, cutout doors and windows. Motherwell was particularly intrigued to experiment with the viscosity of paint and to explore the canvas as a color field, as the varied textures and densities of ochre on the canvas demonstrate. Although Motherwell linked the Open paintings to windows and walls, he regarded them as being, like all his work, open ended in meaning.