Robert Motherwell Open Series Essay Example
Robert Motherwell Open Series Essay Example

Robert Motherwell Open Series Essay Example

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  • Pages: 2 (358 words)
  • Published: February 12, 2018
  • Type: Essay
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The palpating is given its own personality by a striking vibrancy. The color fields and lines have a strong narrative quality that immediately engages the viewer in their dialogue. The organic ochre juxtaposed with the manufactured colors of the lines emphasizes every change in value and temperature. The white line is a premeditated guideline for control, while the black line informs itself and changes as it moves. The repetition of line and space creates a rhythm embodied in the painterly brushstrokes of the color field. The painting manifests two contrasting forces that support each other. With an imposing scale of 92 inches tall, the lines are neither structural nor conform to preconceptions of a drawn line. They become something else, simply existing as lines without ties to known ones. The field of color feels confined on the canvas, becoming a facade.The vibrations caus

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ed by the lines in the painting release pressure and activate the surface, with the potential to disrupt the equilibrium. The color field of the painting reflects its rich historical background, displaying multiple layers of color and conveying a sense of creative authority. However, despite this sense of authority, the painting transcends beyond human experience and understanding of origin, defying any attempt at categorization. The lines in the painting appear to create shapes yet also inform them, blurring boundaries between positive and negative space to activate the entire surface of the canvas. Robert Motherly's "Open Series" painting "Open in Ochre" commands attention with its humbled authority and large scale, existing in a harmonious dichotomy between individual experience and universal concept. This work is consistent with Motherly's "Open" series as it utilizes line t

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activate a color field.

The painting's vibrant colors immediately engage the viewer in a dialogue. The colors of the lines gradually fade, but due to their confinement on the canvas and multiple layers of color, the painting asserts its authority. In order to appreciate its creation, one must understand its origin, yet the painting defies any one origin. The lines in the painting seem to defy their expected behavior and become positive space on the canvas, activating its entire surface.

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