Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 17
illus. p. 66 (fig. 21); Motherwell 1987,
p. 7; Soler 1987, p. 37; Clarke 1988,
p. 170; Lloyd 1988c, p. 17; Pleynet
1989a, p. 75; Pleynet 1989b, pp. 12, 14,
17–20, 23–24, 27, 66, 215, color illus.
p. 67; Brunet-Weinmann 1991, sec. B,
p. 2; Danto 1991, color illus. p. 111;
Flam 1991, pp. 12–15, 19, 26, color
illus. n.p. (pl. 2); Levin 1991, p. 8, illus.
p. 8 (fig. 8), referred to in text and in
illus. as Spanish Prison (Window);
Pleynet 1991, p. 18; Polcari 1991,
pp. 302, 304, 307; Scully 1991, p. 19;
Kingsley 1992, pp. 304–5, 319; Franzke
1994, p. 6, cover color illus.; Pleynet
1995, p. 106; Sawin 1995, pp. 359, 361;
Bonet 1996, p. 8, color illus. p. 6; Caws
1996b, pp. 9, 115, 118, 127, 144, illus.
p. 11, color illus. n.p.; Fundació Antoni
Tàpies exh. cat. 1996, illus. p. 20;
Ràfols-Casamada 1996, p. 19; Anfam
1997, p. 504; Cernuschi 1997, pp. 111–
13, illus. p. 110; del Conde 1997, p. 78;
Lynton 1997, p. 39; Rosand 1997, p. 20;
Zucker 1997, illus. p. 256 (fig. 33);
Chalumeau 1998, p. 8, color illus. p. 11
(pl. 3); Gilbert 1998, pp. 256, 262,
338, 470, illus. p. 547 (fig. 32); Pleynet
1998, p. 92; Ward 1998, p. 55; Scott and
Rutkoff 1999, p. 305; Barnier 2000,
p. 108; Wentrup 2001, pp. 45, 47, 49, 59,
83, illus. (fig. 10); Anfam 2002, pp. 67,
114, 167, color illus. p. 64 (fig. 47);
Caws 2003, pp. 15, 40, 41, 69, 100, 121,
147, illus. p. 40 (ill. 30); Peggy
Guggenheim Collection exh. cat. 2003,
p. 310; Museum Morsbroich exh. cat.
2004, color illus. p. 18; Van Hensbergen
2004, p. 167; Cooper and Luke 2006,
p. 44, color illus. p. 45 (fig. 29); Ashton
and Banach 2007, illus. 345; Mattison
et al. 2009, p. 54, color illus. p. 31.
comments
Motherwell stated that Little Spanish
Prison was one of the first paintings he
created after his return from Mexico
in November 1941 (interview with
Arthur Cohen, 1969, which contains
Motherwell’s most detailed discussion
of this painting; see “Writings by the
Artist,” in the Bibliography). However,
he subsequently reworked the picture
in small but significant ways.
The horizontal rectangle at the
upper left was originally what
Motherwell described as “a window”
that revealed “spontaneous underpainting” (Mattison 1987, p. 59). Sometime
between 1941 and 1944, he painted
this rectangle red, and the picture was
exhibited at Art of This Century and
the Arts Club of Chicago in that form.
Then, sometime before sending the
work to his retrospective exhibition
at Bennington College in 1959, he
repainted the rectangle black.
(According to Hobbs 1975b, p. 118,
Motherwell painted this area black as
early as 1942–43; but the painting is
described in Motherwell’s handwriting
as still having “a red rectangle” in an
annotated copy of the 1946 Arts Club
of Chicago catalogue, now in the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art
archives. Thus, we can say with certainty only that the rectangle was
painted black sometime between 1946
and the 1959 Bennington College
exhibition, when it was referred to by
Eugene C. Goossen in his foreword to
the exhibition catalogue as “the black
interloper in the prophetic ‘Little
Spanish Prison.’ ”) But ten years later,
on the occasion of the 1969 exhibition
The New American Painting, organized
by the Museum of Modern Art,
Motherwell asked the museum’s conservation department to remove the
black paint on the small rectangle, once
again revealing the original red.
The date of this painting has been
given variously, ranging between 1941
and 1944. When first shown at Art of
This Century, it was dated 1944 on the
exhibition checklist. Then, beginning
with the Bennington College exhibition
in 1959, it was dated to 1941. From the
1965 Museum of Modern Art retrospective on, it has generally been dated
1941–44, which we follow here. We
have nonetheless placed this painting
among works from 1941 because it
appears that the basic composition was
set then, shortly after Motherwell’s
return from Mexico.
p4
Spanish Picture with Window
Neuberger Museum, State University
of New York at Purchase, 1986
(traveling), illus. p. 41.
Alternative Title: White Painting
1941
Oil on canvas
42 x 34 in. (106.7 x 86.4 cm)
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
2002, color illus. p. 115, illus. p. 266.
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: Motherwell 1941
Verso covered by relining and remounting to a hollow-core panel, no longer
visible (inscriptions known from a
pretreatment photograph)
Verso: R. Motherwell 1941
Verso (on original top horizontal
stretcher): spanish picture with
window
Verso (on original horizontal crossbar):
Motherwell #1
artist’s studio number
p41-512
present owner
Collection of the Modern Art Museum
of Fort Worth. Museum purchase, the
Friends of Art Endowment Fund
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Modern Art
Museum of Fort Worth, 1993
solo exhibitions
New Gallery, Bennington College, Vt.,
1959, cat. no. 3, as White Painting.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 2, color illus.
p. 53; shown in Buffalo and San
Francisco only.
Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea,
Milan, 1989, cat. no. 1, color illus. p. 30.
Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City,
1991 (traveling), cat. no. 3, color illus.
p. 38.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
1993.
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona,
1996 (traveling), cat. no. 1, color illus.
p. 73.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
2004.
group exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
June 1969, cat. no. 71.
City Art Centre and Fruitmarket
Gallery, Edinburgh, 1981, cat. no. 23.
references
Arnason 1969, p. 51, illus. p. 50,
referred to in text and in illus. as
White Painting; Motherwell 1969, n.p.;
I. 1971, p. 17; Britannica Encyclopedia
of American Art 1973, p. 382; Arnason
1976, pp. 13, 55; Hobbs 1976b, p. 45,
illus. p. 37; Arnason 1977a, p. 535;
Arnason 1977b, pp. 12, 17–18, 28, 61,
73, illus. p. 16 (pl. 4); Pleynet 1977,
p. 187; Gaugh 1978, p. 31; Royal
Academy of Arts exh. cat. 1978, illus.
p. 14 (cat. no. 2); Anderson 1981,
pp. 109, 132, 221, as White Painting;
Mattison 1981, p. 199, erroneously as
Spanish Wall with Window; [Pleynet]
1981, p. 19; Arnason 1982, pp. 17–18,
28, 61, 73, illus. p. 16 (pl. 4); Alley
1984, p. 56; Kangas 1984, sec. Arts &
Leisure; Regan 1984, sec. Review, p. 12;
Gaugh 1985, p. 71; Mattison 1985b,
pp. 60, 61, 72–73, 75–79, 170–71, 217,
239–40, illus. n.p. (fig. 39); Pleynet
1986, pp. 66, 67; Mattison 1987, pp. 41,
42, 56–59, 183, 203, illus. p. 65 (fig. 20);
Appella 1989, p. 3; Ashton 1989, p. 15,
color illus. p. 30 (cat. no. 1); D’Amico
1989, p. 31; Flam 1991, pp. 13, 15, 26;
Levin 1991, p. 8, illus. p. 8 (fig. 7);
Pleynet 1991, p. 13; Kingsley 1992,
p. 319; Terenzio 1992b, p. 19, illus. n.p.;
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Calendar 1993, pp. 1, 3, color illus. p. 4;
Tyson 1993a, p. 1; Vogel 1993, sec. C,
p. 29; Falgàs 1995, p. 37, erroneously as
Spanish Wall with Window; Caws 1996b,
p. 144; Ràfols-Casamada 1996, p. 19;
Lynton 1997, p. 39; Gilbert 1998,
pp. 252, 254, 256, 338, 470, illus. p. 546
(fig. 31); Pleynet 1998, p. 88; Scott and
Rutkoff 1999, p. 305; Lynton 2001,
color illus. p. 176; Wentrup 2001,
pp. 47, 48, illus. (fig. 13); Caws 2003,
p. 40, illus. p. 40 (ill. 29); Peggy
Guggenheim Collection exh. cat. 2003,
p. 355; Mattison et al. 2009, pp. 13–14,
130, color illus. p. 13.
comments
This painting is signed and dated 1941,
but according to Motherwell’s first wife,
Maria Emilia Ferreira y Moyers, it was
worked on during the summer of 1942
in Provincetown (unpublished manuscript, “Mr. Motherwell’s Ghost,” by
Maria Emilia Ferreira, in the Dedalus
pai ntin gs on c anvas and panel
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