Untitled from VVV Portfolio
Robert Motherwell
American, 1915–1991
1942, published 1943
A small watercolor-and-ink on paper in which Motherwell reduces organic shapes to a spare, emblematic sign—testing how poetic automatism and calligraphic line can become an abstract visual language.
A tall, egg-shaped wash of warm yellow contains a thin, vertical calligraphic stroke crossed by delicate horizontals, green crescent forms and tiny black nodes, so the image reads like a floating, schematic plant or map.
Made for the VVV portfolio during World War II, this intimate drawing connects European Surrealist automatism with the emerging Abstract Expressionist vocabulary, showing how small-scale prints and drawings carried gesture, chance, and poetic symbolism into American modernism.
Medium
Watercolor with ink from a portfolio of five etchings (one with aquatint), three duplicated drawings (two watercolor on paper and one crayon on paper), one collage, one engraving, and one gelatin silver print
Dimensions
composition: 2 15/16 x 7 3/8" (7.5 x 18.7 cm); sheet: 6 x 8 7/8" (15.2 x 22.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
1113.1964.9
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
