△《At Five in the Afternoon》Artist: Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991), oil on hardboard panel, 36 3/4 x 48 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (93.3 x 123.2 x 2.9 cm), 1950, Location: Gallery 13.
我個人喜愛的抽象表現主義畫家羅伯特．馬瑟韋爾 (Robert Motherwell) 的作品也收藏在笛洋藝術博物館裡，陽剛之氣，教人看了就是精神為之一震，而且還充滿百般的無限「可能 / Possibility」。
出生於華盛頓州的阿伯丁 (Aberdeen, Washington)，小時候隨著父母遷移到舊金山，身患哮喘，終身大部份時間以西部海岸為家。1932至1937年，進入過舊金山加州美術學院修習藝術，之後在史丹佛、哈佛及紐約哥倫比亞大學，為的就是奠定哲學基礎。
20歲時隨著父親和妹妹遊歷歐洲，從巴黎開始，轉進義大利、瑞士、德國、荷蘭和倫敦。他上哈佛為的就是想要成為一名畫家，父親反對，希望馬瑟韋爾將來找個固定而安全的行業。冷戰月餘，他父親開出一個很慷慨的協議稱：如果馬瑟韋爾拿個啥博士學位，絕對可以任教於任何學院大學，老爸答應每月再貼補200元，終生受用。事有蹊蹺，他跑去哈佛與史丹佛拿到竟然是哲學博士學位。
底下這一段他的文字，頗為發人深省，一個新興文化該是「橫的移植」或是「另起爐灶」？確實予人深思。馬瑟韋爾提出的論點，正是新人文面相產生的濫觴源流，而他，一輩子往這個方向努力邁進：
" what I realized was that Americans potentially could paint like angels but that there was no creative principle around, so that everybody who liked modern art was copying it. Gorky was copying Picasso. Pollock was copying Picasso. De Kooning was copying Picasso. I mean I say this unqualifiedly. I was painting French intimate pictures or whatever. And all we needed was a creative principle, I mean something that would mobilize this capacity to paint in a creative way, and that‘s what Europe had that we hadn‘t had; we had always followed in their wake. And I thought of all the possibilities of free association—because I also had a psychoanalytic background and I understood the implications—might be the best chance to really make something entirely new which everybody agreed was the thing to do. "