Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, made up the quartet of abstract painters that radically defined Modern painting in America and established New York City as the new center of the art world.
Motherwell was a tremendously gifted communicator and so fell in to being the unofficial spokesman of the New York School; writing, editing a journal, and lecturing on behalf of the movement and the merits of abstraction. While his contribution to the art historical canon as a painter is undisputed, Motherwell's role as a printmaker is equally important. One of the most experimental and courageous printmakers of the 20th century, he was always searching for new techniques to express or expand his ideas and aesthetics.
This lithograph is visually bold. Framed by opaque black bands, and set among a striking blue flat, sits a grey impression. Etched with subtle lines and reminiscent of Motherwell's Open paintings, the central grey rectangle and its surrounding composition come together in a paradigm of Motherwell's oeuvre. His use of grey paper is clever, as the exposed sheet on the left mingles with the applied compositional elements. This combined with the textured application throughout, force the viewer to reckon with which greys are applied, and which are the substrate showing through.
"The Aberdeen Stone" is one of three visually similar "Stone" prints that refer to Motherwell's Scottish heritage, and is a particularly meaningful impression for the artist. Aberdeen is both a town in northeastern Scotland, and the birthplace of Motherwell (b. 1959, Aberdeen, Washington). Motherwell assigned titles to each of the prints that inscribe site references onto the stones used: Celtic, Douglas, and Aberdeen. While visually different, the three works were printed using the same litho stone.
While there is a strong geographical and autobiographical reference in these "Stone" prints, there is also a direct nod to the medium--lithography--a technique which traditionally involves engraving and printing a stone.
Impressions of "The Aberdeen Stone" are in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Fine Arts Boston; de Young Museum, San Francisco; and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
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"The Aberdeen Stone"
1971
Lithograph on light grey wove Murillo paper
Signed "R. Motherwell" in yellow pencil, lower right
Numbered "Printer's Proof for Ben Berns" in yellow pencil, lower right
Workshop chop mark, lower right
Edition of 10 + 2 AP in Roman numerals + 1 PP (this example)
Published by Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip, New York
Printed by Ben Berns and David Umholz, Universal Limited Art Editions
40.25"H 27.5"W (sheet)
43.5"H 30.5"W (framed with plexiglass)
Very good condition.
Literature:
Terenzio and Belknap 1984, no. 74; Engberg and Banach 2003, no. 103
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