Untitled (Elegy)

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

After a period of painting them [the Elegies], I discovered black as one of my subjects—and with black, the contrasting white, a sense of life and death . . . -- Robert Motherwell

An abstract meditation on life and death, Motherwell’s Elegy series is comprised of over two hundred pieces. The artist was originally inspired by the violence of the Spanish Civil War and by contemporary poetry, and he continued the series for over forty years, from 1948 until the end of his life. In this small example, glimpses of red peek out from the black vertical and ovoid forms. The color draws attention to the gestural whites and grays of the background, hinting at rupture, something obscured, or a tearing at the work’s edges.

From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing

Course History

ANTH 50, COCO 2, HIV/AIDS Through a Biosocial Lens: 30 Years of a Modern Plague, Sienna Craig, Timothy Lahey, Spring 2013

ARTH 17, Abstract Expressionism, Jim Jordan, Spring 2012

PHIL 23, The Philosophy of Art, John Kulvicki, Winter 2014

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States, Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States. Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

PHIL 23, Art and Aesthetics, John Kulvicki, Winter 2015

SART 25.01, Painting I, Enrico Riley, Winter 2020

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 53, Expression of the Unconscious, The Language of Emotion, Anna Nearburg, Class of 2010,The Kathryn Conroy Intern. Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 7-Feburary 7, 2010.

Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26,2025.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, exhibited with Abstraction at Mid-Century: Major Works from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31-June 3, 2001.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 1, 2006.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5-March 11, 2001.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 25-May 30, 2003.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 28-September 17, 2000.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 29, 1996-January 5, 1997.

Gesture, Emotion, Shape: Sources of Abstraction by Philip Dytko, Class of 2017, Pauline Lewis, Class of 2016, and Amalia Siegel, Class of 2016, Art History 71: The American Century- Modern Art in the United States, Winter 2015, Mary Coffey, Class Project, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 14-July 12, 2015.

Publication History

Anna Nearburg, A Space for Dialogue 53, Expression of the Unconscious, The Language of Emotion, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2010, ill. cover.

Provenance

The artist; Dedalus Foundation, Inc., Bedford Hills, New York; partial gift/purchase to present collection, 1996.

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