In 1948, Robert Motherwell produced an early work on paper that established the basic “Elegy” design of black ovals and vertical bars. This private start mattered because it gave him a repeatable visual structure he could return to for decades. Later, he treated this early image as the beginning of the Elegy to the Spanish Republic series.
Around 1948–1949, Motherwell made At Five in the Afternoon, tying the Elegy motif to Federico García Lorca’s poem about the bullfighter Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. By using a literary title, he helped frame the abstract forms as a kind of lament rather than a purely formal design. This work became widely discussed as a key starting point for the series’ meaning and mood.
By the early 1950s, Motherwell began turning the Elegy idea into major oil paintings, not just small studies. Works such as Catalonia show the recognizable ovals-and-bars layout on a larger scale, with a title that points directly to Spain. This shift helped make the series a centerpiece of Abstract Expressionism, balancing spontaneous brushwork with a stable underlying structure.
In 1953–1954, Motherwell produced major large-format numbered Elegies, showing the series could carry the physical presence expected of postwar “big canvas” painting. These larger works made the motif feel less like an illustration and more like a public statement. The move also helped standardize the series’ repeated elements so viewers could compare one “Elegy” to another over time.
In January 1958, Motherwell completed Elegy to the Spanish Republic XXXV, which he had begun in 1954. The long working period shows how the series mixed improvisation with revision, even when the paintings look bold and immediate. Finishing this major work helped confirm the Elegies as an ongoing project rather than a short phase.
By 1960–1961, Motherwell was still making both small and large Elegies, showing the motif could be adjusted in scale and medium while staying recognizable. Museum and historical notes emphasize that he treated the “Elegy” as a theme to be tested repeatedly, like a musical variation. This persistence kept the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) as a reference point inside postwar American abstraction.
In 1965–1967, Motherwell painted Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 108, a large work later acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A major museum holding helped cement the series’ status as a central achievement of Abstract Expressionism. It also placed the Elegies into a public institutional story about postwar American art.
In 1968, Motherwell made additional “Elegy” works on paper, showing the project was not limited to oil painting. These smaller pieces kept the motif active in his daily studio practice, even as his public reputation was tied to very large canvases. The paper versions also demonstrate how the Elegy design could be drawn quickly, then later expanded or rethought.
By the early 1970s, Motherwell was still producing new numbered Elegies, including well-known examples from 1971. The continued work mattered because it shows the series was not a one-time reaction, but a long-term meditation on oppression, loss, and memory. These later paintings also influenced how critics and museums understood the series as a career-long statement.
In 1974, Motherwell created works such as Elegy to the Spanish Republic #131, described by a museum as part of a dramatic revival of the Elegies theme. This period matters because it shows the series could return with renewed intensity after other bodies of work. The “revival” also helped extend the series’ timeline beyond the 1960s into the later stages of his career.
Museum interpretations in the 1970s and later emphasized that the Elegies were inspired by the Spanish Civil War and by poetry, treating the black-and-white forms as a visual “funeral song” or lament. This framing mattered because it countered the idea that Abstract Expressionism was only about paint and gesture. It helped audiences connect the series to historical violence without requiring the paintings to be literal illustrations.
By 1977, Motherwell had produced well over 150 works connected to the Elegy to the Spanish Republic theme, creating one of the most sustained series in Abstract Expressionism. Treating 1977 as an endpoint highlights a completed arc: an idea born from postwar reflection and shaped by poetry became a long-running visual language for mourning and resistance. The series’ endurance helped secure its legacy as Motherwell’s signature achievement.
Robert Motherwell's Elegy to the Spanish Republic series (1948–1977)