Exhibited in the MOTHERWELL/BEACON Print Retrospective, Beacon, New York. October 23-December 6, 2004. Literature: Engberg/Banach Catalogue Raisonne 231. Lift-ground etching and aquatint on J.B.Green paper. Printed by Catherine Mosley in the artist’s studio. Despite his ofttimes explosive use of color, Motherwell’s primary protagonists remained black and white throughout his career. In the vast majority of his prints, white does battle with black in a face-off of life against death, light against darkness. Nowhere is this more apparent than in “Dance II” Motherwell’s minimalist meditation on among other things Matisse’s classic painting “Dance”. Motherwell himself commented on this particular print calling it “full of ambiguities, mountains, massive blacks against pure white paper, rhythms of my arm-mind, immediacy yet not intimate.” This is the largest, simplest and most impressive print in the three print "Dance" series and illuminates Motherwell's mission in life to literally "strip art bare".
