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Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 171
Artist
Robert Motherwell
(American, 1915 - 1991)
Date1988-89
MediumAcrylic on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 84 × 168 1/8 × 1 1/4 in. (213.36 × 427.04 × 3.18 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase, The Friends of Art Endowment Fund
Object number1993.24
Status
Not on viewInscribedverso on stretcher ""ELEGY TO THE SPANISH REPUBLIC #171." 1988-90."
Signedrecto u.l.c. "RM[underlined] 88"
Copyright© 2020 Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Category
Label TextFrom 1948 until his death in 1991, Robert Motherwell explored the expressive contrasts of black and white and of vertical bars and ovoid shapes in his best-known series, Elegies to the Spanish Republic. Consisting of close to two hundred paintings and hundreds more drawings and prints, the series refers to the defeat of Spanish republicanism in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The artist insisted, however, that the works were not “political” but recognition of something terrible that should not be forgotten.
In Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 171, 1988–90, massive, roughly brushed bars and ovals spread across the mural-sized canvas with a forceful play of rhythm and proportion. The composition’s monumentality and hanging, weighty black verticals evoke the feeling of a tragic narrative. Yet the appearance of lively brushwork, the palpable tension of the compressed ovals, the inclusion of color, and the animated white lines on two of the ovals project a contrasting sense of vitality. Motherwell’s art always moved between a spontaneous, sensuous impulse and a more restrained sensibility imbued with profound human feeling. In this painting, the artist successfully held these expressive polarities in tension, leaving it to the viewer to choose whether to focus on artistic concerns (black and white, form and brushwork), historical events (republicanism and fascism, freedom and totalitarianism), or metaphysical questions (good and evil, life and death). Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 171 demonstrates Motherwell’s ability to create an elegant composition of abstract shapes that provokes a range of emotional and intellectual responses.
In Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 171, 1988–90, massive, roughly brushed bars and ovals spread across the mural-sized canvas with a forceful play of rhythm and proportion. The composition’s monumentality and hanging, weighty black verticals evoke the feeling of a tragic narrative. Yet the appearance of lively brushwork, the palpable tension of the compressed ovals, the inclusion of color, and the animated white lines on two of the ovals project a contrasting sense of vitality. Motherwell’s art always moved between a spontaneous, sensuous impulse and a more restrained sensibility imbued with profound human feeling. In this painting, the artist successfully held these expressive polarities in tension, leaving it to the viewer to choose whether to focus on artistic concerns (black and white, form and brushwork), historical events (republicanism and fascism, freedom and totalitarianism), or metaphysical questions (good and evil, life and death). Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 171 demonstrates Motherwell’s ability to create an elegant composition of abstract shapes that provokes a range of emotional and intellectual responses.