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Biography
1915
Born to Robert Burns Motherwell II and Margaret Motherwell in
Aberdeen, Washington, on 24th January.
1918
Family moves to California.
1919-1926
Family live in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1926
Family moves permanently to California. Receives a scholarship
to the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.
1932-1937
Studies painting briefly at California School of Fine Arts,
San Francisco before attending Stanford University, Palo Alto,
California receives BA in philosophy.
1937-1938
Completes one year of a philosophy PhD, Harvard University.
1938
Travels in Europe. Spends the summer at the University of Grenoble.
Rents a studio in Paris from October, 1938 to July, 1939.
1939
Teaches Art, University of Oregon, Eugene.
1940
Moves to New York and studies History of Art with Meyer Schapiro,
at Columbia University.
Works as studio assistant to surrealist artist, Kurt Seligmann.
1941
Travels to Mexico with the Chilean Surrealist painter Roberto
Matta; does “automatic” drawings and paints first major paintings
including
The Little Spanish Prison.
Meets the Mexican actress
Maria Emilia Ferreria y Moyers whom he marries the following year.
Returns to New York City in December; moves into Perry Street
Apartment in Greenwich Village.
1942
Permanently abandons university studies in favour of painting.
Meets William Baziotes and quickly gains entry to a group
of New York artists including Pollock, Rothko and Kline, who
would come to be known as Abstract Expressionists. Collaborates
with Max Ernst and André Breton on the surrealist magazine VVV.
1943
Father dies. Income ceases. Makes first collages with Jackson
Pollock.
1944
First one-man exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery,
Art of this Century,
New York.
First museum purchase,
Pancho Villa Dead and Alive,
by Museum
of Modern Art, New York.
Writes for
Partisan Review
. Until 1951, edits and directs the
Documents of Modern Art
series.
1945
Signs exclusive contract with Samuel Kootz Gallery, New York.
Spends spring in Florida with William Baziotes. Becomes friendly
with Adolphe Gottleib. Teaches during the summer at Black
Mountain College, North Carolina. Moves to East Hampton,
Long Island where he buys a studio designed by architect
Pierre Chareau.
1946
Meets Mark Rothko in East Hampton. Included in exhibition
“
Fourteen Americans
” at Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1947
Publishes
Possibilities
with John Cage, Pierre chareau and Harold
Rosenberg.
1948
Founds the art school “Subjects of the Artists”, with Baziotes,
David Hare and Rothko.
Later joined by Newman. First use of the image which was
to become the motif for the
Elegy
series.