(Robert Motherwell obituary, continued)
America were very parochial in relation to the international tradition.
"What held us together was our ambition to use the standards of international modernism as a gauge, not those of Thomas Hart Benton or Grant Wood or Guy Pene du Bois. We did have a terrible struggle, but not for success. It was to make painting that would stand up under international scrutiny, and all the rest was a byproduct."
The notion espoused by many young artists and critics that his work had too much elegance and refinement was countered by Mr. Motherwell with the assertion that he was an "intuitive and primitive" painter whose work was "almost as direct as a child's."
A 'BARBARIAN' WHO READ FRENCH
"Compared with Brancusi, Matisse, Miro, I'm a barbarian," he said. "If people would understand the barbaric force of my paintings, instead of always pointing out how well I understand Picasso. I'm a Viking who has read French litereature."
Yet he acknowledged that "each generation has to react against the one before it."
"There is a general reaction against Abstract Expressionism, and that's all right," he said. "The next generation will react against this one, and so forth. But my values can't change to please a public. Whether my work is liked or not by the young, it's an authentic expression of an individual, the real McCoy, of whatever kind it is."
Over the last five years, Mr. Motherwell created the Dedalus Foundation, which will gradually give most of his works to museums around the world. His studios in Greenwich will become a small private museum.
Besides his wife, Renate, Mr. Motherwell's survivors include two daughters by (private), his second wife: (private); a grandchild, (private), and a sister, (private).
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