Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 19
p5
Foundation Archives). She also states
that during the 1940s it had been called
The Whiteness of the Whale, after Chapter
42 in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.
The work was not exhibited until
1959, when it was shown as White
Painting. Motherwell gave it the present
title when it was exhibited in 1969, after
he had done many of the paintings in
the Open series. At that time he added
the new title to the top horizontal
stretcher.
In a 1969 questionnaire for the
Museum of Modern Art, Motherwell
remarked that an early state of this
canvas included “a single tiny ‘window,’
almost fully filled with an orange oval
sun” where the three vertical bands
now are (see “Writings by the Artist,”
in the Bibliography).
The painting was relined and
mounted on a hollow-core panel with
the artist’s approval around 1979.
p5
Mexican Night
Ca. 1942
Oil on canvas
42 x 34 in. (106.7 x 86.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
Verso not seen
present owner
Unknown
provenance
The artist
references
Arnason 1977b, p. 18, illus. p. 16 (pl. 5);
Pleynet 1977, p. 187; [Pleynet] 1981,
p. 19; Arnason 1982, p. 18, illus. p. 16
(pl. 5); Mattison 1985b, p. 73, illus. n.p.
(fig. 38); Pleynet 1986, pp. 66, 67;
Mattison 1987, p. 56; Flam 1991, p. 13;
Anfam 2002, p. 67.
comments
This work is known only from an early
black-and-white photograph (Dedalus
Foundation Archives), and we are
not certain that it still exists. It was
p6
illustrated in Arnason 1977b with a
credit line stating that it was in an
“Anonymous Collection.” Arnason
used information from Motherwell in
his discussion of this painting and
related pictures, describing Mexican
Night as “a rectangular study in subdued grays and beige with a considerable amount of tonality gradation.
This shows a face, suggestive of certain
Surrealist works and interesting in terms
of Motherwell’s subsequent development of images having to do with the
form of the triangle and his obsession
with panels.” Arnason goes on to say
that this was one of “three or four paintings executed shortly after Motherwell
returned from Mexico” (see also p6 and
p7), and which, except this one, had
“disappeared” (Arnason 1977b, p. 18).
Arnason dates this work to 1941–
42, but we believe that it is more likely
to have been done in 1942.
In 1979, Motherwell gave another
painting the title Mexican Night (p974).
p6
{ Title unknown}
1942
Oil on canvas (?)
42 x 34 in. (106.7 x 86.4 cm), approx.
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: Motherwell 42
Verso not seen
present owner
Unknown
provenance
The artist
references
Mattison 1985b, p. 90, illus. n.p.
(fig. 45, as Untitled [black painting]).
comments
This painting is known only from an
early black-and-white photograph
(Juley photo no. 44; j0004840) and
may no longer exist in the form illustrated here. On the back of a print
of this photograph from the Sidney
Janis Gallery archives, a note in an
unknown hand states: “This is a wall.”
This note appears to be related to
pai ntin gs on c anvas and panel
7
