View Chapters

Book: Spirituality in Modern Art

Chapter: Motherwell’s Spiritual Underground

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.46773

Blurb:

In Chapter Five, Motherwell’s 1944 lecture, “The Place of the Spiritual in a World of Property,” is considered within the Immaterial Frame, using the artist’s biographical experiences, ideological influences, and cultural context to shed light on Motherwell’s conception of the ‘spiritual.’ As an active member of the mid-twentieth century American art scene, Motherwell’s relationship to Dada, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism is considered, alongside foundational intellectual influences such as Arthur O. Lovejoy, Meyer Schapiro, and Alfred North Whitehead. In this context, the relationship between the immaterial and the spiritual is explored.

Chapter Contributors