Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 110
c136
illus. p. 64; Amsterdam, cat. no. 67,
illus. n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 67; Turin,
cat. no. 67, illus. p. 108 (pl. 48).
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 24, illus. n.p.; Caracas, cat. no. 79;
Bogotá, cat. no. 79; Mexico City, cat.
no. 24.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
November 1972 (traveling), cat. no. 25,
illus. p. 73.
group exhibitions
Yale University Art Gallery, New
Haven, Conn., 2002, cat. no. 35, color
illus. p. 33 (pl. 9), as The Magic Skin.
references
Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin
1964, p. 50, illus. p. 40, referred to in
text and in illus. as The Magic Skin;
Arnason 1966b, p. 37, illus. p. 41; Ray
1966, pp. 4–5, cover illus., illus. p. 4,
98
collages
c137
referred to in text and in illus. as The
Magic Skin; Motherwell in Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, exh. cat. 1972,
p. 73; Arnason 1977b, p. 53; Arnason
1982, p. 53; Thierolf 2002, p. 281, illus.
p. 281 (fig. 2).
c137
comments
The title of this collage refers to
Balzac’s novel La Peau de Chagrin
(1831). Motherwell inscribed the title
“norwegian collage” on the verso,
but that title was never used publicly.
In Motherwell’s notes to the catalogue
for his 1972 exhibition at the Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston, he wrote:
“Reference of course to Balzac and to
magic of something from ‘nothing’ in
art” (Motherwell in Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, exh. cat. 1972, p. 73).
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: R. Motherwell 63
Cafetiere Filtres
1963
Oil and pasted papers on paperboard
39¾ x 26¾ in. (101 x 67.9 cm)
Verso: cafetiere filtres
R. Motherwell 1963
present owner
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Tashjian,
New York
provenance
Private collection, 1965; private collection; Mr. and Mrs. John C. Tashjian,
New York, 2006
solo exhibitions
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.,
1965, cat. no. 19, illus. n.p.
group exhibitions
Pavilion of Fine Arts, New York World’s
Fair, New York, 1964, illus. n.p, erroneously as Capetiere Filtre.
comments
The title refers to the top of a box for a
French filter-method coffeemaker at
the center of the work. The title would
be grammatically correct as the plural
“Cafetières Filtres,” but Motherwell
signed it as “cafetiere filtres” (without the accent on the second e in
cafetière) on the verso, probably because
some of the e and all of the s of the
word cafetière is torn away on the label
he used in the collage.
