The emergence of abstract art is a sign that there are still men of feeling in the world. Men who know how to respect and follow their inner feelings, no matter how irrational or absurd they may first appear. From their perspective, it is the social world that tends to appear irrational and absurd.

Notes from Wikiquote

from his responding at the 1951 MoMA symposium, in which several artists were asked to respond to the prompt 'What Abstract Art Means to Me'

Beyond the Aesthetics (1946)

The painter and the audience (1954)

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Motherwell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.