User:Lnherzog/sandbox

Robert Motherwell’s Je t'aime No. IV is a part of his Je t'aime collection. The medium for this painting is oil and charcoal on canvas, the date is from 1955- 1957, and the dimensions are 70 1/8 inches by 100 inches. This painting is an example of the art style Abstract Expressionism, which is a style originated in the 1940s and 1950s in New York in which the artist expresses themselves through unidentifiable forms and through spontaneous acts of creating art.

In this art work there is a definite focus on large areas of bold color. There is hardly any mixing of colors except for a little red/white, blue/white, and black/white. In the background there are large blocks of canvas painted with the warm colors red, tan, yellow, and orange. On top of that there are random areas covered with blue, red, and tan. On top of that are the colors, white, yellow, and tan. The only piece of this painting that appears to represent any kind of form is the word “Je t'aime”, which is French meaning “I love you.” These drastic color differences goes along with Motherwell’s “push and pull” concept that all movement within a painting necessarily implies a reciprocal movement in the opposing direction.

Many people have suspected that Motherwell was in love at the time that he created this piece. However, he actually created the “Je t'aime” paintings while he was going through a divorce with his second wife. So instead of creating the paintings because he was in love, he created the paintings because he had “a need for love." H. H. Arnason goes on to say that, “Motherwell is unquestionably a romantic whose works are an intense if generalized reflection of his day-to-day life, his innermost emotions, his passionate involvement with art and the world in which he lives.”

Along with his longing for love, Motherwell also has a specific technique that he used in Je t'aime. He would first trace what he wanted to draw, make changes and then paint it. This is a technique that Motherwell used in most of his paintings and if looked closely, the viewer can see the tracing marks behind the paint. Also most of Motherwell’s paintings are considered collages. Arnason states that “these paintings retain definite aspects of the geometric cut-out shapes of the collages.”

Along with his different use of color in his paintings, there is also a progression of Motherwell’s artistic style, which can be seen through his Je t'aime series. In Je t'aime No. II, he uses mainly warm colors, few forms and harsh brushwork to express his longing for love. In Je t'aime No. IV, he starts to include more overlapping forms and cool colors. Finally in Je t'aime No. VIII, Motherwell uses barely any forms and the entire painting is mostly one color.