Robert Motherwell Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart 25th Anniversary Screen Print 1991

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Robert Motherwell (American, 1915–1991)
Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, 25th Anniversary, 1991
Lithograph and screenprint on Coventry rag paper
Edition … Read more Robert Motherwell (American, 1915–1991)
Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, 25th Anniversary, 1991
Lithograph and screenprint on Coventry rag paper
Edition of 800
Printer: Trestle Editions Ltd., New York
Publisher: The Artist

This striking work was created by Robert Motherwell to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Executed in 1991, the composition exemplifies Motherwell’s powerful use of bold gesture and abstract form, juxtaposing dynamic black brushstrokes against a vivid red field and fragments of musical notation. The interplay of calligraphic expression and symbolic references to Mozart’s music underscores Motherwell’s lifelong dialogue between visual abstraction and cultural history.
Printed by Trestle Editions Ltd. in New York on Coventry rag paper, the work was produced in a limited edition of 800 impressions. As one of the final projects of the artist’s distinguished career, it stands as a synthesis of Motherwell’s painterly intensity and refined graphic sensibility. Both a celebration of music and a testament to Motherwell’s legacy within Abstract Expressionism, this piece remains a highly collectible print that bridges fine art and cultural commemoration.

Framed : 44" H 33" W 1.75”D

About the artist :
Robert Motherwell (American 1915–1991)
Robert Motherwell was an American painter, printmaker, and writer, and one of the most influential figures of Abstract Expressionism. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1915, he studied philosophy at Stanford University and Harvard before turning to art, where his background in literature, philosophy, and psychology profoundly shaped his creative vision.
In the 1940s, Motherwell became closely associated with leading figures of the New York School, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Motherwell combined painterly abstraction with intellectual depth, drawing inspiration from literature, poetry, history, and political events. His early series, Elegies to the Spanish Republic (begun in 1948), remains among his most powerful and enduring bodies of work, serving as both a formal exploration of abstract motifs and a meditation on human struggle, tragedy, and resilience.
Throughout his career, Motherwell was not only a prolific painter but also an articulate spokesman for Abstract Expressionism. He wrote extensively on the movement, edited influential anthologies such as The Dada Painters and Poets (1951), and taught at universities, shaping generations of younger artists.
His work encompassed large canvases, collages, and prints, marked by bold forms, gestural brushstrokes, and a sensitivity to the relationship between color, space, and symbol. Motherwell’s art is represented in major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the Tate.
He continued working until his death in 1991, leaving behind a legacy as both a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism and one of its most thoughtful interpreters. See less