Bathers by a River

~At the base of a steep platform, an oval-headed dummy rests – armless and almost faceless, but seemingly sentient – on a block of wood (Fig. 185). Wooden planks culminate in a clunky Doric propylaea, the portico of which appears as impenetrable as the mannequin’s stolid head. The figure not only inhabits...

THE LATTER HALF OF 1948 WAS A TUMULTUOUS TIME FOR MOTHERWELL; HE LATER REMEMBERED IT as one of the most miserable and stressful periods he had ever lived through. Although his work was being well received, and he was involved in a number of publishing projects and other professional activities (among them co-founding an art school called The Subjects of the Artist), in his personal life...