Motherwell (1915-1991) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker and editor.  He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which included Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

 Motherwell began to exhibit his work in New York in 1942, and in 1944 he had his first one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim’s “Art of This Century” gallery.  Also in 1944 MoMA was the first museum to purchase one of his works.  One of Motherwell’s best known series of works is titled “Elegy to the Spanish Republic” which he created in 1948 and would continue to produce for the rest of his life.  Major exhibitions of Motherwell’s works have been held in many important museums around the world, including the Royal Academy of Art, London, Museo de Arte Moderna, Mexico City, Galerie Heinz Berggruen, Paris, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. and The Museum of Modern Art, New York City.