Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was a painter and printmaker from Aberdeen, Washington, who was heavily involved in founding the new movement of Abstract Expressionism, The New York School. Motherwell received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and then continued his education at Harvard University, seeking a Ph.D. in philosophy. But this was interrupted by a trip to Europe in 1938, which spurred his interest in European modernism. In 1940, Motherwell began studying art history at Columbia University. Here, he was introduced to exiled Parisian surrealists Max Ernst, Duchamp, and Masson. After making a trip with Roberto Matta in 1941, Matta expressed his ideas for artistic revolution, recruiting Motherwell to gather other American artists for what would become The New York School. By the mid-1940s, Motherwell had become the leading spokesman for avant-garde art in America. During the 1950s, he taught painting at Hunter College in New York and Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where his students included such figures as Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, and Kenneth Nolan. There, he also met and married fellow artist Helen Frankenthaler. Motherwell set up the Dedalus Foundation in 1981 which received his estate, worth over $25 million, and over one thousand artworks when he passed. His works are also held in collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Modern in London.