Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 103
c125
(Juley photo no. 222; j0005010). After
Motherwell returned to New York he
tore the label from Labouchede brand
gressins out of that earlier composition
and made it the central element in this
work. As noted in the verso inscription,
Motherwell meant the title as a multiple pun, which he also explained in
his 1963 Smith College exhibition catalogue: “The French advertisement is
from a box of diet-crackers (the French
always talk about one’s line in relation
to weight); the line of the Riviera coast
is visible; it is one of the most ‘French’
pictures I have ever painted (and in
this sense follows the ‘French Line’ in
painting); I traveled on the French Line
to Europe to paint it. . . . But all that
about the ‘title’ is ‘literature.’ The
work has to stand or fall as painting”
(Motherwell in Smith College Museum
of Art exh. cat. 1963, caption to plate 19).
c125
Pyrénéen Collage
Alternative Title: Pyrenean Collage
1958–61
Oil, pasted paper, and charcoal on
paper
23 x 29 in. (58.4 x 73.7 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right, incised: Motherwell
Verso (on backing board) [partially
obscured by label]: [“pyr]énéen
collage” Robert Motherwell 1961
Verso (on backing board): not for sale
(collection helen frankenthaler)
artist’s studio number
c59-5100
present owner
Helen Frankenthaler
provenance
Helen Frankenthaler, 1961
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York,
December 1962, cat. no. 16, illus. n.p.
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf,
1976 (traveling), cat. no. 29, illus.
p. 103.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977, illus. n.p.
New Gallery, Charles Hayden Memorial
Library, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, 1963.
group exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
October 1961 (traveling), illus. p. 97.
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.,
1965, cat. no. 10, as Pyreneen.
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-deVence, France, 1967, cat. no. 169.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 61, illus.
p. 31; Amsterdam, cat. no. 54, illus.
n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 54; Turin, cat.
no. 54, p. 103 (pl. 43).
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1976 (traveling), cat. no. 145.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 17; Caracas, cat. no. 72; Bogotá,
cat. no. 72; Mexico City, cat. no. 17.
Drawing Center, New York, 1999, color
illus. p. 48.
references
Gaul 1963, illus. p. 5; Arts Yearbook
1964, color illus. p. 62; Arnason 1966b,
p. 37, as Pyrenean Collage; Baro 1966b,
color illus. p. 39; Arnason 1977b,
pp. 53–54, illus. n.p. (pls. 122, in early
co lla ges
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