b'Robert Motherwell Open No. 79 In Gray with Charcoal, 1969 Acrylic on Canvas, 41.25 x 61.25 x 2 inches Initialed Recto and Inscribed Verso For Renate Ponsold [the artists widow] Easter Day 1972MSFA: 7390 ProvenanceGift of the artist to Renate Ponsold Motherwell in April 1972 Literature H. H. Arnason, Robert Motherwell, New York 1982, p. 163, full page illustrated in color (erroneously titled Easter Day). Jack Flam, Katy Rogers and Tim Clifford, Eds., Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonn, 1941-1991, Vol. 2: Paintings on Canvas and Panel, New Haven 2012, cat. no. P4, p. 257, illustrated in colour. Robert Motherwell (American, 1915 - 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter. His Open Series uses the artistic trope of the window in order to examine ideas of colour and geometry as well a metaphor for the relationship between our inner world of emotions and the outer world of senses. This work is part of Robert Motherwell\'s "Open" Series which focused on the theme of the window, began in 1967 entirely by a chance juxtaposition of a smaller canvas leaning against a larger one. Motherwell then outlined the silhouette of the smaller canvas and then turned it upside down creating the U shape that predominates the series. After his death in 1991, Clement Greenberg noted that he was one of the greatest of the Abstract Expressionist painters.'