Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 101
c124
The French Line
1960
Oil, pasted papers, and graphite on
board
29½ x 22½ in. (74.9 x 57.2 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower center, incised:
R Motherwell
Verso (on label): éze - sur - plage,
france
Verso (on backing board): on 100%
rag paper Robert Motherwell 1960
“the french line”*
Verso (on backing board): *Referring
to: 1. Painting (French) 2. Diets (amis
fidèles de votre ligne) 3. Boats (trans
Atlantic) 4. Côte d’Azure (coast-line)
Verso (on label): RM 60
artist’s studio number
c60-5094
present owner
Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection.
Promised gift of the Virginia and Bagley
Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th
anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
c123
c123
Summertime in Italy No. 4
1960
Oil and pasted paper on paperboard
mounted on canvas
41 x 26¾ in. (104.1 x 67.9 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left, incised: RM 60
artist’s studio number
c60-539
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; private
collection, 2005
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 13, illus. n.p.
comments
This collage was created in Alassio,
Italy.
provenance
Professor Sam Hunter, ca. 1960;
Virginia and Bagley Wright
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 14, illus. n.p.
Galerie Heinz Berggruen, Paris, 1961,
color illus. n.p.
Galleria Odyssia, Rome, 1962, cat.
no. 4.
Galerie der Spiegel, Cologne, Germany,
1962.
Smith College Museum of Art,
Northampton, Mass., 1963, cat. no. 19,
illus. n.p.
New Gallery, Charles Hayden Memorial
Library, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, 1963.
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.,
1965, cat. no. 15.
Marlborough Gallery, New York, 2002.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 49, illus.
p. 56; Amsterdam, cat. no. 44, illus.
n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 44; Turin, cat.
no. 44, illus. p. 118 (pl. 58).
group exhibitions
Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis,
Mass., 1998.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
November 1972 (traveling), cat. no. 21,
color illus. p. 31 (pl. 8), illus. p. 69.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell:Works on Paper,
September 1965 (circulating).
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1976
(traveling), cat. no. 25, illus. p. 103.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1983
(traveling), cat. no. 37, color illus. p. 80;
not shown in Los Angeles.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New
York, 1984, cat. no. 45.
group exhibitions
Seattle Fine Arts Pavilion, 1962, cat.
no. 44, illus. p. 38.
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University,
Waltham, Mass., 1964, cat. no. 85.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1976 (traveling), cat. no. 144.
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1977, illus.
p. 655 (detail).
Museum of Art, Washington State
University, Pullman, 2006, color illus.
p. 6 (detail), color illus. p. 45.
references
Porter 1961, p. 379; Sandler 1961a, illus.
p. 44; Moritz 1962, p. 310; Motherwell in
Smith College Museum of Art exh. cat.
1963, n.p.; Barker 1965, sec. B, p. 5; Vogue
1965, illus. p. 141 (cat. no. 6, in exhibition); Arnason 1966b, p. 32, color illus.
p. 33; Andreae 1969, p. 8; Freed 1972a,
p. 8, illus. p. 8; Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, Calendar 1972, cover illus.;
Patton 1973, p. 2; Hobbs 1975b, p. 84;
Arnason 1976, illus. p. 13; Arnason 1977b,
pp. 53, 73, color illus. p. 52 (pl. 27);
Arnason 1982, pp. 53, 73, color illus. p. 52
(pl. 45); Bonet 1983, p. 135, illus. p. 133;
Hasiotis 1983, color illus. n.p. (fig. 4);
Hughes 1983, p. 70, color illus. p. 68;
Bannon 1984a, color illus. p. 37; Collins
1984, pp. 96–97, illus. p. 97 (fig. 5); Gelles
1984, p. 38, illus. p. 38; McClintic 1984,
p. 41, color illus. p. 40; Danto 1985, p. 59;
Kimball 1985, p. 33; Mattison 1985b,
p. 142; Danto 1987, p. 50; Mattison 1987,
p. 116; Mattison 1988, p. 171; Flam 1991,
color illus. n.p. (pl. 46); Polcari 1991,
p. 311, illus. p. 311 (fig. 249); Waldman
1992, p. 221, color illus. p. 220 (pl.
289); Caws 1996b, pp. 149, 153; RàfolsCasamada 1996, p. 20; Chalumeau 1998,
color illus. p. 18 (pl. 11); Cateforis 2000–
2001, p. 8; Thierolf 2002, illus. p. 299
(fig. 5); Caws 2003, p. 130.
comments
The pasted papers in this work were originally part of a larger collage composition
created in Eze-Sur-Plage, France, during
the summer of 1960, which contained
significant areas of painted gestural forms
co lla ges
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