Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 104
c126
state, 123, as Pyrenean Collage, 125,
in studio, in early state); Motherwell in
Arnason 1977b, n.p.; Arnason 1982,
pp. 53–54, illus. p. 141 (pls. 159, in early
state, 160), referred to in text and in
illus. as Pyrenean Collage; Motherwell
in Arnason 1982, p. 141; Fisher 1992,
p. 158, as Pyrenean Collage.
comments
This collage was begun in Saint-Jeande-Luz during the summer of 1958 and
subsequently reworked in New York.
Its earliest documented state is in a
photograph taken in Motherwell’s New
York studio during the spring of 1960,
where it is surrounded by stylistically
similar works, all created during the
winter months of 1959–60 (Juley photo
no. 260; j0005044); around the same
time, the collage was also photographed
individually (Juley photo no. 265;
j0005049). It is clear that in this 1960
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collages
state many of the original 1958 collage
elements were altered or no longer present, since glue and delaminated paper
are visible under the painted areas.
In 1961 Motherwell cut away the
upper section of the collage, following
the line of the black forms, pasted the
remaining portion of the collage onto a
painted white ground with a charcoal
line, and titled the work Pyrénéen
Collage. (The completion in New York
is reinforced by a parking stub from
Yankee Stadium at the upper right,
which has been partially covered with
black paint.) The brown paper at the
center of the collage originally contained a printed label reading “produce
of france,” but the ink has now faded
entirely. Motherwell mentioned this area
in 1977, when he described the genesis
of the collage in relation to the Pyrenees:
“As a person attached to the sea, not
to mountains, I was affected by those
mysterious mountains more than I
expected. The wine paper wrapper
‘Produce of France’ refers not only to
the collage having been made in
France, but also to both my indebtedness to modernist tradition and,
with irony to my growing irritation at
being labeled at home as a ‘French’
painter, a mistake that the French
themselves have never made naturally”
(Motherwell in Arnason 1977b).
c126
Sky and Pelikan
1961
Oil and pasted paper on paperboard
29 x 23 in. (73.7 x 58.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: RM 61
artist’s studio number
c61-5095
present owner
Yale University Art Gallery. Gift of
Robert Motherwell
provenance
Yale University Art Gallery, New
Haven, Conn., 1963
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York,
December 1962, cat. no. 15, illus. n.p.
