Motherwell / Alberti

1972 / 15 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood

Motherwell/Alberti explores the artistic connection between Robert Motherwell’s Open Series and Rafael Alberti’s poetry cycle, A La Pintura. Infatuated with Alberti’s text, Motherwell uses his words as the subject for his first venture into aquatints at Tatyana Grosman’s printmaking workshop. Historic footage shows Alberti, the last member of the Garcia Lorca generation, reading his poetry aloud. His poetic themes voice an homage to painting, which Motherwell’s set of abstract “windows” delicately complements.