Bastos

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Bastos

Artist Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991)

Date1974-1975

DimensionsOverall: 62 5/16 x 39 3/4 in. (158.3 x 100.9 cm)

MediumColor lithograph

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Roshe

Object number

1991.72

Not on View

Label TextRobert Motherwell did not print his own plates. He relied on the expertise of master printers—such as Kenneth Tyler, who printed Bastos—and in a way, the printers became another medium, one that encouraged him to think in new ways. “I had always instinctively loved working on paper,” Motherwell explained, “but it was the camaraderie of the artist-printer relationship that tilted the scale definitively, a phenomenon that I think often happens when artists grow older and more isolated.” For Bastos Motherwell created a small maquette (model) by collaging a Bastos cigarette wrapper onto a drawing. The collage was photographically enlarged and transferred to five aluminum plates. The black background was drawn directly onto the lithograph stone. The plates and stone were then printed one on top of another to create the final image. Black had a special resonance for Motherwell. The printer Kenneth Tyler noted, “Black is his favorite thing. It’s the child in the artist.” Motherwell himself felt that black was intrinsically wicked and foreboding. The use of black in this print, in conjunction with the imagery of the artist’s favorite cigarette, might refer to the pleasure of smoking and also to its dire consequences.