In Plato's Cave No.V
Artist
Robert Motherwell
(American, 1915–1991)
Date1973–1974
Mediumacrylic on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 182.9 x 213.4 cm (72 x 84 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
MarkingsSerial #: P73/74-1967
Credit LineEliza S. Paine Fund and Gift of the Dedalus Foundation
Terms
Object number1997.140
Label TextRobert Motherwell, who was educated in philosophy and art history, was highly regarded as an intellectual and artist. His predilection for the abstract was shaped by his early exposure in the 1940s to surrealist ideas about painting as a method of revealing the contents of the unconscious mind. Compositionally, the somber and eloquent In Plato’s Cave features an open rectangle, apparition-like yet a place of focus amidst the larger rectangular field of layered washes. Out of blackness, Motherwell created an experience of light and air. The title is a reference to Plato’s meditations on the shadowy images cast on the walls of a cave, an allegory about illusion and physical form, sensorial and intellectual experience. The painting demonstrates Motherwell’s belief that the artist’s “task is to find a complex of qualities whose feeling is just right—veering toward the unknown and chaos, yet ordered and related in order to be apprehended.”
ProvenanceDedalus Foundation, Inc., New YorkOn View
Not on view
