With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
909 North Street, Greenwich
- Robert Motherwell
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Motherwell spent the last twenty years of his life here, creating art, writing and establishing the Daedalus Foudation.
- Description of Significance/Historical Narrative
- Robert Motherwell purchased the property in Greenwich in 1970 and moved there full time after he divorced his second wife, fellow abstract expressionist artist Helen Frankenthaler, in 1971. He and third wife, art photographer Renate Ponsold, whom he married in 1972, created several studios throughout the property, adding on to existing buildings. Motherwell's main studio was a large 20 foot wide by 100 foot long space where he could create large paintings, but he said that having multiple studios allowed him to easily work on different media, different pieces at the same time. Although Motherwell had established himself as a pioneer of abstract expressionism thirty years earlier, the twenty years in Greenwich were prolific and, according to Jack Flam, President of the Daedalus Foundation, the grounds provided inspiration in their balance between natural evolution and the hand of man which he sought to achieve in his art.
- Date of Construction
- 1900 w/ later additions
- Historic Designation(s)
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n/a