Which Abstract Expressionist painter is known for the 'Elegy to the Spanish Republic' series?

Robert Motherwell is the Abstract Expressionist painter known for the “Elegy to the Spanish Republic” series.

Motherwell began the series in 1948 after creating an abstract image of black oval and rectangular forms for a proposed issue of the art review Possibilities. The image was connected to a poem by critic Harold Rosenberg, and Motherwell later reworked its basic visual structure into the Elegies. He continued producing versions of the series for the rest of his life.

The repeated black forms against pale backgrounds are among Motherwell’s most recognizable motifs. They have been interpreted as evocations of mourning, violence, death, and the Spanish Civil War, though Motherwell and other commentators also connected them to the imagery of a dead bull in a Spanish bullfighting ring.

The title refers to the Spanish Republic defeated during the Spanish Civil War, but the paintings are not literal historical illustrations. Motherwell used abstraction to explore grief and collective memory. His best-known examples include Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, made in 1971.