Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 38
p36
p36
The Poet
Alternative Title: Figure with Stars
1946
Oil and sand on canvas board
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: Motherwell 46
Verso: Motherwell “The Poet”
Jan–June 1946
artist’s studio number
p46-5150; p46-5250
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, 1946;
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Kootz, ca. 1947;
[Christie’s, New York, November 12,
1980, lot 14, illus.]; unknown
owner, 1980; private collection, 2011
solo exhibitions
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York,
April 1947, cat. no. 9, as Figure
with Stars.
group exhibitions
Galerie Maeght, Paris, 1947, illus. n.p.
26
paintings on ca n v a s an d p a n e l
p37
p38
Musée National d’Art Moderne,
Paris, 1947.
p37
p38
Indian Head
Red Head
references
Cahiers d’art 1947, illus. p. 333, as
Personnage à l’étoile (Figure with Stars);
W[olf] 1947, p. 21, as Figure with Stars;
Mattison 1985b, p. 179, illus. n.p.
(fig. 160), as Starry Personage; Paul
1986, p. 69, as Starry Personage;
Mattison 1987, p. 148, as Starry
Personage.
1946
Oil and sand on canvas
18 x 14⅛ in. (45.7 x 35.9 cm)
1946
Oil on Masonite
18 x 14 in. (45.7 x 35.6 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
inscriptions
Recto, lower right, incised: Motherwell
Verso: R. Motherwell
Verso: “red head” 1946 Motherwell
present owner
Private collection, Munich
artist’s studio number
p46-5199
comments
This painting is the first in a series
of especially well-realized figurative
compositions that would preoccupy
Motherwell during the following year
(see p56–p58 and c42). The figures
in these works, composed of disconnected oval body forms and stick-like
arms, are related to those in drawings
that Motherwell had done since 1943
(see, for example, fig. 9 in volume 1).
This painting anticipates by almost a
year one of Motherwell’s major early
collages (c42), which he also later titled
The Poet.
provenance
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, ca. 1947;
unknown owner; [Sotheby Parke
Bernet, Inc., New York, April 26, 1972,
lot 113, illus.]; unknown owner, 1972;
Stefan T. Edlis; [Christie’s, New York,
November 3, 1987, lot 3, illus.]; private
collection, Munich, 1987
present owner
Private collection
group exhibitions
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, 1947, cat. no. 254.
provenance
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, 1946;
Vera G. and Albert A. List; [Sotheby’s,
New York, May 3, 1989, lot 90, illus.];
Waddington Galleries, London, 1989;
private collection, London, 1990;
[Christie’s, New York, September 23,
2005, lot 156, illus.]; private collection, 2005
