Gauloises with Scarlet #13 1972

Robert Motherwell created ‘Gauloises with Scarlet #13’ using paper and collage elements. The painting immediately strikes us with its bold field of red, a hue that bleeds emotional intensity, contrasted by an affixed cigarette packet in cool blues and browns. The composition is structured by vertical lines that act almost as architectural supports, lending a graphic simplicity, while the collage element grounds the work in tactile reality. Motherwell uses a semiotic interplay here, where the Gauloises packet, a recognizable cultural sign, disrupts the purity of abstract expressionism. The scarlet field doesn’t merely serve as background; it asserts itself, pushing and pulling against the collage, challenging fixed meanings. The work, therefore, becomes a site where abstract form engages with everyday signs, and the aesthetic collides with lived experience. It compels us to reconsider the boundary between high art and popular culture.