Robert Motherwell, Abstraction, and Philosophy

Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this book breaks new ground by considering how Robert Motherwells abstract expressionist art is indebted to Alfred North Whiteheads highly original process metaphysics. Motherwell first encountered Whitehead and his work as a philosophy graduate student at Harvard University, and he continued to espouse Whiteheads processist theories as germane to his art throughout his life. This book examines how Whiteheads process philosophyinspired by quantum theory and focusing on the ongoing ingenuity of dynamic forces of energy rather than traditional views of inert substancesset the stage for Motherwells future art. This book will be of interest to scholars in twentieth-century modern art, philosophy of art and aesthetics, and art history.