It may be that the deep necessity of art is the examination of self-deception.

On Motherwell's death Clement Greenberg the great champion of the New York School left in little doubt his esteem for the artist commenting that "although he is underrated today in my opinion he was the very best of the Abstract Expressionist painters". And I got to 600 in April and May when one night my wife and I were having dinner and the telephone rang. The time that Motherwell spent with the Surrealists proved to be influential on his artistic process.

He was one of the youngest of the New York School (a phrase he coined) which also included Jackson Pollock Mark Rothko Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston.