Reconciliation Elegy by Robert Motherwell

Reconciliation Elegy 1977

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Dimensions: overall: 29.9 x 61 cm (11 3/4 x 24 in.)

Copyright: National Gallery of Art: CC0 1.0

Robert Motherwell made this Reconciliation Elegy with crayon and graphite on paper. The sky-blue, almost pastel ground, feels like a starting point, a clean slate for the conversation between colors to begin. Motherwell’s marks feel unrehearsed, as though he is thinking through the relationships between each color, and the feeling of the piece, in real time. The red and black shapes are grounded, solid, yet they feel disrupted by the scribbled green, like the tension between thought and feeling. It's like, what is it we really want to hold onto? Look at the bottom left corner, you can see the vertical orange bar, its rough edge exposed, not quite blending with the blue background, the color stands apart, asserting its own presence. It reminds me of how Agnes Martin used to talk about the grid, not as a structure but as a starting point for infinite possibilities. Motherwell is doing that here, using shape and color to open up something more profound.

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