Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, made up the quartet of American abstract painters that radically defined Modern painting and established New York City as the center of the art world for the second half of the 20th century.

Motherwell was the unofficial spokesman of the New York School, writing and lecturing prolifically on behalf of the movement, his fellow artists, and the merits of abstraction.

His work appears in museum collections around the world and is instantly recognizable for its boldness and black forms. Yet in addition to his impressive paintings, Motherwell is also revered as a printmaker. He is one of the most innovative and prolific printmakers of the 20th century. He was always searching for new techniques, whether at his own printmaking atelier, or collaborating with others, to expand his ideas and express his aesthetic.

"America-La France Variations VIII" was created at Tyler Graphics in 1984 along with the rest of the series. It is notable for its dramatic vertical shape, and that it is the tallest print from the series.

In this dynamic and long lithograph, Motherwell unites his signature gestural brushstrokes with torn paper and collage-like elements. Collaged into the work is a section from the cover of Arches paper amongst abstracted blocks of blue, black, and neutral beige. There is a suggestion or a map, or a stylized beach. Where the Cubists incorporated collage into the painted canvas, Motherwell similarly fused it with printmaking, still retaining the gestural spirit of Abstract Expressionism.

Condition--Very good