Robert Motherwell Open Series

Motherwell’s “Open in Ochre” painting commands attention with its humbled authority. Its scale cannot be ignored as it stands on the line of the human experience and a higher power. The work resolves an inner tension that it shares with the viewer; it extends itself beyond the individual without compromising its specificity. The work serves both as a triumphant beacon of assuredness all while maintaining a soft approachability. In this sense it is a dichotomy that exists harmoniously.
“Open in Ochre” is consistent with Motherwell’s “Open” series in that it is line that activates a color field. A striking vibrancy gives the painting its own personality. The color fields and lines have a strong narrative quality to them and immediately include the viewer in their dialogue. The manufacture colors of the lines juxtapose the organic ochre and emphasize every change in value and temperature. The stark, rigid, white line is a guideline for control—it is premeditated and a product of rules. The black line on the other hand is informing itself and changing as it moves. The white line is illustrative, general and the black line is narrative and specific. The repetition of line and space give the painting a rhythm that is embodied in the painterly brushstrokes of the color field.
This painting is a manifestation of two forces contrasting to a point that they are no longer in contention but support each other. The first contrast the viewer sees is the imposing scale of the work. Standing at 92 inches tall the viewer barely accepts it as his own world. The lines are not large enough to be considered structural but also defy any ties to the preconception of a drawn line. With this the lines become something else, in fact they become nothing else, and they simply are lines. The viewer struggles understanding a line of that scale because it negates relationships to any known lines. The field of color becomes a façade, but because it is confined to its inherent