Reconciliation Elegy 1978

Robert Motherwell made this expansive painting, Reconciliation Elegy, with paint on canvas. The black shapes against the white background feel both monumental and immediate, like giant gestures frozen in time. Looking closely, you can see the texture of the paint, how it's thick in some areas, almost like the inkiness is sitting on the surface. In other spots, it’s thin and transparent. You can practically see the movement of his arm as he made those marks, each one a record of a decision, a feeling, a moment. Look at the way the black bleeds slightly into the white. It's as if the shapes are breathing, alive. Motherwell’s work reminds me a little of Franz Kline’s, but with a more elegiac, mournful quality. Like all good art, it’s about embracing ambiguity, allowing for multiple readings.