In Robert Motherwell: The Making of an American Giant, published to coincide with Motherwell's centenary, author Bernard Jacobson examines Motherwell's art in the context of 20th-century American culture. America's music and literature were indigenous triumphs, while its art was slowly learning to become American. Imitation metamorphosed into resistance, soon to be named Abstract Expressionism. A painter, teacher and theorist, Motherwell had a slower-burning career than most of his colleagues, many of whom died young. He was always the intellectual, an Apollonian among Dionysians, and...