HOLY MOTHERWELL!

The "Elegy Series" demonstrates how certain artistic concerns remained with Motherwell throughout his long career. In the case of "Elegy #172," it's the automatism Motherwell took early on from the surrealists, a process the artist himself later compared to doodling or, more correctly, "artful scribbling." In a 1977 interview with Barbaralee Diamondstein, he stressed that the reason he kept going back to the "Elegy Series" was not to make "yard goods," but to get the composition right once and for all.

Motherwell did get it right. And so did DAM director Sharp when he took such decisive action to acquire this collection. The major financial commitment the museum made constituted a bold move on Sharp's part, says curator Vanderlip. But Sharp clearly understood that the Modern and Contemporary department sorely needed a jump start, which the Dedalus bequest surely provides. Vanderlip makes another claim: that the newly acquired Motherwells are "the most important single acquisition of modern art in the museum's history." She's not exaggerating, even a little bit.