Motherwell was a philosophy graduate of Stanford and Harvard, but showed early interest in art. His studies led him to Europe in the late 1930's where he obtained new insights into modern art. After his return to New York in 1940, Motherwell studied under the art historian Meyer Shapiro at Columbia University, and began experimenting with abstract gestures. He decided to devote himself completely to painting, a decision which held little promise for anything but hard work and probable discouragement. Yet, a few short years later, he was to find himself one of the leading figures in the best known American art movement, Abstract Expressionism. Motherwell's year in Europe placed him in a special position, allowing him to bridge not only the language barrier but ... the aesthetic gulf which divided American artists from European surrealist artists in exile in New York, such as Andre Masson, Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst.