Artist Info: Robert Motherwell was born on January 24, 1915 in Aberdeen, Washington. Motherwell is one of the most recognized of the American Abstract Expressionist painters. After receiving a Bachelor's degree in philosophy from Stanford University, and beginning graduate studies at Harvard, Motherwell set out in 1938 for a year of travel in Europe. It was during this trip that he began painting in earnest, holding his first one-man show at the Raymond Duncan Gallery in Paris in 1939. Motherwell moved to Greenwich Village in 1941, abandoning his academic studies to paint full time. In 1942 he met abstract artist William Baziotes, and was introduced to many of the abstract expressionists of New York. In abstract expressionism the "act" of painting becomes the "content" of the painting. Through gestural movements the artist is attempting to unleash their raw emotions, not paint pretty pictures.