Beside the Sea #42 1966

Robert Motherwell made this painting, Beside the Sea #42, with paint on paper, and, seeing it, I imagine it coming into being through action, gesture, and pure intuition. I sympathise with Motherwell and imagine him thinking about what it's like to be beside the sea. The paint is thinly applied. A black line anchors the bottom of the picture plane, whilst above it a bold stroke curves and drips, its tendrils reaching out into the whiteness of the paper. It’s a dance between control and chance. Each flick and splatter seems intentional, yet retains a raw, spontaneous quality, and I think of Franz Kline and the work of the abstract expressionists. Motherwell’s gesture communicates feeling, intention, and meaning. The black markings create a feeling of depth, pulling us into the expansive space of the painting. His wider practice investigates gesture as a form of embodied expression, and I think that artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. There's ambiguity here which allows for multiple interpretations.