Contemporary American painting and sculpture

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Texas,andCanada.Commonweal,ArtNews,CanadianArt,andAtlanticMonthly
havepublishedarticlesbyMorgan.Hehasbeenteachingsince 1940 atPhillips
AcademyatAndover,Massachusetts,andfrom^1948 to^1951 atHarvardUniversity,
Cambridge,Massachusetts.HisworkisrepresentedintheMetropolitanMuseumof
ArtinNewYork;WadsworthAtheneum,Hartford,Connecticut;theAddisonGallery
ofAmerican Art, Phillips .-\cadcmy, Andover, Massachusetts; and in private
collections.

MOTHERWELL,Robert,BlackInterior,40x48. Illustration—Plate^112

"Itistruethatmodernarthasauniqueamountofexperimentationinit,and

thatperhapsonlypeopleveryclosetotheseexperimentscanatonce"read'them.

Butitistruetoothatmuchoftheso-called'unintelligibility'ofmodernartisa

resultoftheenormousextensioninmoderntimesofthebackgroundofart,aback-

groundwhichwasforeveryoneuntilacenturyorsoago,andstillisformostpeople

the realismofGreece andRomeand theRenaissance, andmodern modesof

illustration."

Headducesasexampleshisownstudents,themselvesteachersofart,whohave

learnedartinthe usualacademicway,workingfromthe model."Oneofmy

pleasuresandoneofthestudents',iswhenthedaycomes,morerapidly[than]one

expectsinastudioclass,lessrapidlyinalecturecourse,thatstudentscan'read'a

MondrianoraMirooraCubistcollageasfeelinglyastheyalreadycouldaVermeer

oraChardinoraGoya;anequallygreatpleasureonmypart,andoneunexpected

onthestudents'part,isthattheycanakso'read'withequaleaseanItalianprimitive,

aCretanclayfigure,aByzantinemosaic,aNewHebridesmask.Itisinterestingthat

oncethisrangeofperceptionisaddedtotheirpreviousappreciationofthevarious

modesofrealisminpainting,Icannotpersuadethemtoreturn—thoughtheyahvays

areatlibertyto—tothelivemodel.Theysaythatitgetsinthewayoftheirreal

conceptions."—RobertMotherwell,inArtsandArchitecture,Vol.LXVHI,No.9,

(September,1951),pp.20-21,41,passim.

RobertMotherwellwasbornin.Aberdeen,Washington,in1915.Hegrewupin

California.Hisextensiveuniversitytrainingwasnoneofitconcernedwiththestudy

ofart.HereceivedtheBachelorofArtsdegreefromStanfordUniversityin1936,

studiedphilosophyattheGraduateSchoolofHarvardUniversityfrom^1937 to1938,

followedbyworkattheUniversitedeGrenoble (France)in 1938 andgraduate

studyintheareaofFineArtsand.ArchaeologyatColumbiaUniversity,NewYork,

from1940-1941.Hehaswrittenextensivelyonart,asindicatedinthecatalogueof

the 1951 UniversityofIllinoisExhibitionofContemporaryAmericanPainting,and

isnowediting,withAdReinhardtandBernardKarpel,ModernArtistsinAmerica,

abiennialpublicationwithcompletebibliographiesandthelike,duetoappearina

monthorso.From^1940 to^1944 hewasamemberoftheParisiansurrealistgroup,

butalwaysasanabstractpainter.Hisworkhasbeenseeninvariousplacesinthe

UnitedStatesofAmericaandinParis,London,Venice,Prague,Florence,andLima,

Peru.RecentlyhefinishedanabstractmuralforamodernstylesynagogueinMill-

burn,NewJersey,andasectionofthemuraldestinedforaschoolinAttleboro,

Massachusetts,hasbeenpresentedtotheUniversityofMinnesota.(Seelastyear's

cataloguefordetails.) HisworkwasalsoshowninanAmerican"avant-garde"

exhibitioninParisinFebruarythisyear.

MotherwellteachesintheGraduateSchoolofHunterCollege,NewYork,and