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 body of work is almost completely void of representative images - however as a printmaker he included images from photos to cigarette packaging to supplement his abstract creations.

In this dynamic lithograph, Motherwell brings the gestural and impactful feeling of his paintings to printmaking. Substituting heavy brush-strokes for layers of ripped paper mixed with more restrained painted lines Motherwell creates an enigmatic image with fragmented visuals and a suggestive meaning.

Motherwell's finest print are realized on heavily textured hand-made papers with a lot of character. This work is Arches Cover paper torn and collaged onto Oatmeal Australian Bemboka hand-made paper. The paper exhibits exceptional character with naturally decaled edges.

This work is included in "Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991 Catalogue Raisonne" pg. 268.