ROBERT MOTHERWELL
Poet I.
Lithograph on Arches, 1962. 545x405 mm; 21½x15¾ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 5/22 in pencil, lower right. Printed and published by ULAE, West Islip, with their blind stamp lower left. A superb, dark and richly-inked impression of this scarce, early lithograph. We have found only two other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Tatyana Grosman (1904-1982), founder of ULAE, and Motherwell (1915-1991) had become acquaintances through a mutual friend in 1957, and Grosman made several attempts to draw Motherwell to her workshop on Long Island. It was not until Helen Frankenthaler, then Motherwell's wife, encouraged him to try lithography that Motherwell began working with Grosman. Motherwell's first project with ULAE, the Poet lithographs, used Motherwell's collaged "P" image, which he had used in past original compositions. Motherwell created lithographs at ULAE through the 1960s, using the medium to explore new ideas when he had creative blocks while painting. Belknap 2.