Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, made up the quartet of American abstract painters that radically defined abstraction and established New York City as the center of the post-war art world.

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

In the 1960s, Motherwell visited Italy on vacation with his then-wife, Helen Frankenthaler. Motherwell was enamoured with the palette of the Italian sky and landscape, specifically in the mountainous Liguria region, which inspired a series of paintings, "Summertime in Italy".

With the same title, this exceptional lithograph, carries the same commanding elegance and simplicity. To create this work Motherwell applied a French transfer paper coated with gum solution to mask the image out of the background, creating an inverted effect.

The sky blue background contributes to a serene and contemplative composition. This piece serves as a distinctive output from this important body of work.

Motherwell's 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.

Condition: Very good