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NYPL to Showcase Robert Motherwell Exhibit
March 18, 2025, 8:12.56 am ET

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Image: Motherwell Exhibit, NYPL

“Robert Motherwell: At Home and In the Studio,” will be on display at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwartzman building from March 22-August 2

This exhibition celebrates the recent gift from the Dedalus Foundation of prints by Motherwell and books from the artist’s home donated by his family. An additional group of books that he kept in his studios will now join the Library’s other historically important book collections.

Motherwell’s passion for reading ran the gamut from literature and philosophy to art history, and he was an especially avid reader of poetry. He amassed a library of more than 4,000 books, many of which he annotated, in his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he moved in 1971.

His prints reflect his preoccupation with the subconscious, which was a touchstone of the Modernist movement. Artists such as Motherwell sought to capture the universal qualities of human experience by exploring their innermost thoughts and feelings, a project that the American Modernists inherited from the Surrealist movement following World War II.

The etchings, aquatints, lithographs, and screenprints on view also showcase ways in which Motherwell’s range of imagery and subjects reflect his passion for reading.

For more information, visit www.nypl.org



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