Robert Motherwell spent the summer of 1962 at an artist’s colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His paintings of the early 1960s are inspired by the view from his studio window – waves crashing on the beach of the Atlantic coast.

In 1962, Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler spent the summer at the artists’ colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the coastline inspired the “Beside the Sea” series of 64 paintings.  In this series, the oil paint was splashed with full force against rag paper imitating the sea crashing on the shore in front of his studio. Italian Summer, made in 1963, is a part of the “Beside the Sea” painting series.

-Abhi Singh