The Open series, Move to Greenwich

Motherwell donates twelve Lyric Suite drawings to the Museum of Modern Art in memory of Frank O’Hara.

Motherwell and Frankenthaler spend a long summer in Provincetown as their house on East Ninety-fourth Street is under renovation. He creates a number of collages that include packages of Gauloises cigarette wrappers, which he acquires from the writer B.H. Friedman, who recently purchased the house next door to Motherwell’s.

Returning to New York in late September, Motherwell moves into a new studio on East Seventy-Fifth Street. In late October, he has Open No. 1 (then known as Ochre Door) installed in his newly renovated brownstone at 173 East Ninety-fourth Street. Within days, he rotates the canvas so that the rectangular charcoal lines descend from the top of the canvas instead of ascending from the bottom. He re-signs the canvas to affirm this new orientation, finalizing the first painting in what he will call the Open series. In the months that follow, he continues to explore the possibilities suggested by the first Open painting.

From May 13 to June 7, Robert Motherwell: Open Series 1967–1969 is shown at the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery. The exhibition features fourteen large new paintings, announcing a major new direction in Motherwell’s work.

New York Paintings and Sculpture, 1940-1970 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, opens in October. Organized by Henry Geldzahler, it includes twelve works by Motherwell, including Open No. 14: In Ochre with Charcoal Line.

In the fall, Motherwell begins living in Greenwich full-time.

Soon after, he meets the German photographer Renate Ponsold, who he will marry the following year.

Over the summer, Robert Motherwell: Recent Paintings, curated by Martin Friedman, is shown at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. The exhibition presents sixteen paintings from the summer of 1971. On August 6, Motherwell participates in a public interview with Friedman and Dean Swanson.

In September, A la pintura is published by ULAE in an edition of forty, after four years of work by Motherwell.

In the fall, A la Pintura is shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A catalogue with essays by Motherwell and curator John McKendry, accompanies the show.

Motherwell establishes his own print workshop in Greenwich. He buys a Brand etching press, hires printmaker Catherine Mosley, and begins publishing his own editions.

In April, Robert Motherwell: Recent Paintings and Collages is presented at Knoedler Contemporary Art Gallery, New York. The gallery is a new partnership between the Knoedler Gallery and Lawrence Rubin and will become Motherwell’s principal gallery for the rest of his life. This first exhibition at the gallery includes Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 124, In Plato’s Cave No. 1, and Motherwell’s recent large collages, including Heidi and Claus.

In June, Motherwell suffers from an acute attack of pancreatitis and is hospitalized for several weeks; surgery is scheduled for the fall.

In Provincetown that summer, he paints as though each day could be his last, creating thirty works in sixty days, including the Persian series and The Wild Duck.

In October, Motherwell undergoes a series of five operations, including the removal of his gallbladder and the installation of a pacemaker. During the procedures he nearly dies, but within two weeks he is well enough to return home.

That fall he makes The Irregular Heart, which includes torn pieces from a package of medicine sent to Motherwell in Provincetown.

In March, Robert Motherwell: Retrospectiva del gran pintor norteamericano, curated by Dore Ashton, opens at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City.

Motherwell paints The Spanish Death in a six-hour burst of inspiration. The “death” referred to in the title refers not only to the death of the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco in November 1975, but also to the loss of freedom by the Spanish people under his oppressive hand.

H.H. Arnason’s monograph Robert Motherwell, with a preface by Bryan Robertson, is published by Harry N. Abrams.

In January, Motherwell attends the opening of his retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, a modified version of the Paris exhibition that includes 54 works. In London, Motherwell meets with David Sylvester, Bryan Robertson, John Kasmin, and Norman Rosenthal, and visits Henry Moore in Hertfordshire.

Mayor Jacques Chirac presents Motherwell the Grande Médaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris, the highest honor given by the city. Motherwell is the first American painter so honored.

The East Building of the National Gallery of Art opens to the public on June 1 with three commissioned works: Motherwell’s Reconciliation Elegy, a large mobile by Calder and a tapestry by Miró. The exhibition American Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist, curated by E.A. Carmean Jr. and Eliza Rathbone opens on the same day.

Robert Motherwell & Black, curated by Stephanie Terenzio, opens in March at the William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Motherwell participates in a conversation with students at the museum.

Stephanie Terenzio becomes a close collaborator over the next decade, working on an unpublished memoir with Motherwell and editing the first edition of the Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell (Oxford University Press, 1992).

In November, Robert Motherwell Drawings: A Retrospective, 1941 to the Present, the first retrospective exhibition of Motherwell’s drawings, organized by Jack Flam, opens at the Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston.