At Five in the Afternoon.
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Title |
At Five in the Afternoon. |
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Creator |
Motherwell, Robert (American painter, printmaker, and author, 1915-1991) |
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Date |
1949 |
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Cultural Context |
American
North American
Spanish
European |
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Style/Period |
Modern (styles and periods)
Abstract Expressionist
Abstract (fine arts style) |
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Subject |
Abstract paintings
Abstract works
Allusions
Fantasy
Poetry
Liberty
Death
Fascism
Civil wars
War
Bulls
Animals |
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Description |
"This painting deliberately combines a host of allusions to Spanish culture such as the stark black/white contrasts of Goya, Velasquez, and Picasso, the Spanish poet Lorca's lament to a dead bullfighter, 'Llanto por Ignacio Jánchez mejías', and the (related) enlarged images of a bull's genitalia (a powerful metaphor for the 'virility' of Abstract Expressionism […]). The Spanish Civil War was also at issue here and the rounded forms pressing against dark 'bars' generate weighty metaphorical contrasts between freedom and constraint, life and death." (Caption, p.24); "The Abstract Expressionists' hankerings after (prewar) European sophistication often sat uneasily alongside their desire to assert their 'American-ness'. Robert Motherwell is significant in this respect. He was the most intensively educated participant in the group (he studied at Harvard and Columbia University), and in the early 1940s had been close to the émigré Surrealists. Later in that decade he became affected by the poetry bound up with Surrealism's artistic predecessor, Symbolism, in particular that of Baudelaire and Mallarmé. This esoteric climate lies behind the literary allusions packed into his large series of Elegies to the Spanish Republic initiated by At Five in the Afternoon of 1949, a work rooted in Motherwell's imaginary identification with the Spanish struggle against Fascism. By identifying with Europe's recent past Motherwell could be seen as commenting ironically on the draining of political purpose from Abstract Expressionist art. […] However, on other occasions Motherwell sacrificed his European credentials to argue for America's new-found aesthetic superiority." (Excerpt, pp.23-24) |
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Material |
Casein on canvas
Canvas
Casein
Tempera
Water-base paint
Paint |
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Measurements |
38.1 x 50.8 cm |
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Technique |
Painting (image-making) |
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Work Type |
Paintings
Abstract paintings
Abstract works
Casein paintings
Tempera paintings |
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Source |
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.24, fig.12) |
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Rights |
Photograph reproduced in Hopkins courtesy: Dedalus Foundation, © Estate of Robert Motherwell/VAGA, New York, DACS, London, 2000. |
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Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
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Format |
image/jpeg |
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Digital File Name |
VRC 827-38.jpg |
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Rating |
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