Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110 1971

Robert Motherwell made this painting, Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, with oil on canvas. It's a big statement in mostly black and white. You can almost feel the artist’s hand, right? The making looks like this constant back and forth. The black shapes feel heavy, monumental, but they’re also kind of awkward and vulnerable, like they're trying to hold something together. You know, I’ve been there, trying to get something down, that feels both urgent and impossible. The way the white peeks out around the edges of the black forms—it's not just contrast, it's like a conversation. The materiality of the painting - the push and pull of thick and thin paint layers, the way the canvas breathes beneath it all - speaks to the precariousness of existence. There is something primal in those shapes and forms. Motherwell, like all of us, was in conversation with other painters like Goya, Picasso, Kline. And these forms keep coming up for me, like a sad song.