Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 42
p47
p47
Western Air
Alternative Title: Construction
1946–47
Oil on canvas
72 x 54 in. (182.9 x 137.2 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: R. Motherwell 46/7
Verso covered by relining, no longer
visible
Essen, cat. no. 15; Turin, cat. no. 15,
illus. p. 72 (pl. 12).
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1976
(traveling), cat. no. 7, illus. p. 99.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 14, color illus.
p. 63; shown in Buffalo only.
group exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1950.
artist’s studio number
p46/47-5022
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
January 1951 (traveling), cat. no. 72,
illus. p. 114; shown in New York only.
present owner
The Museum of Modern Art,
New York. Purchase (by exchange)
Museum of the University City,
Caracas, Venezuela, 1954.
provenance
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1950
solo exhibitions
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York,
April 1947, cat. no. 10, as Construction.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 13, illus.
p. 13; Amsterdam, cat. no. 13, illus. n.p.;
30
paintings on ca n v a s an d p a n e l
Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Conn., 1957.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
June 1969, cat. no. 74.
Indiana University Art Museum,
Bloomington, 1970, cat. no. 45,
illus. n.p.
Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo,
Mexico City, 1987, cat. no. 23.
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York,
1992, cat. no. 70.
p48
references
Greenberg 1947, p. 665, as Construction;
W[olf] 1947, p. 21, as Construction; Kees
1948, illus. p. 86, as Construction; Soby
1948, illus. p. 72, as Construction;
Burrows 1950b; Devree 1950b, sec. 1,
p. 27; Museum of Modern Art Bulletin
1950–51, p. 30; Motherwell in
Louchheim 1951a, p. 17, illus. p. 17;
S[euphor] 1951a, p. 21, illus. p. 21; Time
1951a, p. 46; Time 1956, p. 75, color
illus. p. 72; Celentano 1957, pp. 36, 104,
110, illus. n.p. (fig. 43); Eliot 1957,
p. 277, color illus. p. 276; Apollonio et
al. 1958, p. 305; Apollonio et al. 1962,
p. 291; Nordland 1962a, p. 22; Nordland
1962b, p. 50; Institut Mathildenhöhe
exh. cat. 1964, illus. p. 42 (sideways);
B[erkson] 1965, p. 42; Carver 1965,
p. 6; Charmet 1965, p. 168; Tillim 1965,
illus. p. 35; Arnason 1966a, p. 35, illus.
p. 29 (fig. 14); Rose 1967, p. 180, illus.
p. 178 (ill. 6-28); Supovitz 1967, p. 23;
Cooney 1968, illus. n.p. (pl. 15); Apollo
1969b, p. 345, illus. p. 345 (fig. 4);
Hunter 1972, illus. p. 181 (pl. 327);
Hobbs 1975b, p. 84; O’Hara 1975, p. 67;
Rose 1975, p. 154, illus. p. 152 (ill. 6-24);
Arnason 1977b, p. 25; Moore 1980,
cover illus.; Arnason 1982, p. 25, illus.
p. 25 (pl. 13); Seitz 1983, illus. n.p.
(fig. 173); Gelles 1984, p. 38; Mattison
1985b, p. 86, illus. n.p. (fig. 170);
Greenberg 1986b, p. 152, as Construction;
Mattison 1987, p. 71; Flam 1991, color
illus. n.p. (pl. 11); Qin 1996, p. 38, illus.
p. 93 (fig. 29); Wentrup 2001, p. 54,
illus. (fig. 24); Anfam 2002, p. 114.
comments
The granular substance present in the
paint film of this work, sometimes
described as sand, is probably dry pigment (as per conservator Matthew
Skopek).
This painting was begun in 1946
and finished before April 1947. A photograph taken by Francis Lee in 1946
shows Motherwell standing next to a
radically different early state of the
work, which is still visible in the pentimenti (see fig. 185 in volume 1).
In 1951 Motherwell described
this picture as follows: “My painting
takes on this particular abstract quality
because this way I can express my
search for a direct, mystical experience.
There is a feeling of an abyss, a void
