In 1944 he had his first one­-man show at Peggy Guggenheim’s “Art of This Century” gallery. Beginning in the mid­1940s, Motherwell became the leading spokesman for avant-­garde art in America. In 1948, he began to work with his celebrated Elegy to the Spanish Republic t​heme, which he continued to develop throughout his life. From 1950 to 1959, Motherwell also taught painting at Hunter College, in New York.