Robert Motherwell studied philosophy at Stanford and Harvard Universities, before moving to New York to continue his studies at Columbia University. Instead he met exiled Surrealists, among them André Breton, Max Ernst and Roberto Matta. After a voyage to Mexico with Matta, he finally decided to become a painter and developed his style based on Surrealist automatism. With his free association, he created the basis for Abstract Expressionism. He brought together Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and others in a group, which later became known as the New York School. Motherwells was an influential teacher at Hunter College and Black Mountain College, where Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg and Kenneth Noland studied with him. Besides painting, in the 1950s he began creating collages, incorporating everyday objects from his studio. Motherwell was the instigator, trailblazer and erudite spokesman of Abstract Expressionism.
