Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) was an Abstract Expressionist painter. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he was the youngest of "the New York School" (he coined the term), which also included Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Phillip Guston .

As an abstract expressionist, his greatest goal was to use the staging of his work to convey to the viewer, the mental and physical engagement of the artist with the canvas. He preferred using the starkness of black acrylic paint as one of the basic elements of his paintings. One of his more well-known techniques invloved diluting his paint with turpentine to create a shadow effect.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth houses the largest collection of of his works.