Motherwell Monotypes

Prints are magic. They can capture texture unttainable in painting, the ink nestling and cresting the subtle bumps and crevices of a heavy rag paper. Their color radiates more intensely than the results of any other two-dimensional technique. In printmaking Robert Motherwell favored the French ink Charbonnel; it contained a higher pigment content than commericially available oil paint and far exceeded the artificial plastics that make up acrylics. The brilliant halo resonating at the bottom of Untitled 1974; the crimson bursts exploding across Untitled 1974 - they glow with the refulgence of pure pigment. Monotypes have a unique place in printmaking: for they create a single, unreproducible image using mechanical reproductive techniques.