Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 136
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The Brown Stripe
Royal Water Music
1967
Acrylic and pasted papers on paper
22 x 16½ in. (55.9 x 41.9 cm)
1967–68
Acrylic and pasted papers on canvas
board
30 x 15 in. (76.2 x 38.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: RM 67
present owner
Unknown
provenance
The artist
solo exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York, 1968, cat. no. 24.
comments
The pasted papers in this work are torn
from a page of help-wanted ads in an
unidentified newspaper. Our reproduction comes from an early black-andwhite photograph of the work (Nelson
photo no. 33673). There is no record
of this work after it was exhibited at the
Whitney Museum in 1968. We do not
know whether it still exists in the form
illustrated here.
124
collages
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM
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and customs declaration of the diploma
Motherwell received from the Royal
Society of Arts in London, acknowledging his election as a Benjamin Franklin
Fellow.
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Librairie Hachette
1967
Acrylic and pasted papers on paper
30¼ x 22¼ in. (76.8 x 56.5 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: R Motherwell/67
artist’s studio number
c67-1234
Verso (on backing board, reattached):
“Librarie Hachette” Robert
Motherwell
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
artist’s studio number
c67-403
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
solo exhibitions
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
comments
The title refers to George Frideric
Handel’s Water Music of 1717 (hwv
348–50), which was commissioned
by the court of King George I of
England—hence, “Royal.” The collage
element, which Motherwell added in
1968, is also “royal”: it is the packaging
comments
This collage was made in Provincetown
during the summer of 1967. The pasted
paper is a wrapper from a package
sent to Motherwell by the Librairie
Hachette, Paris. Postmarks on the mailing label show that it was sent on July
31 and received in Provincetown on
August 2, 1967.
