Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 168
c290
2007, lot 268, illus.]; Marilyn and
Charles Baillie, 2007
group exhibitions
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery
at Hunter College, New York, 2003,
color illus. p. 27, color illus. p. 45 (in
exhibition).
references
Arnason 1977b, color illus. n.p.
(pl. 230, in progress).
comments
When Motherwell began his Gauloises
with Scarlet collages (sometimes titled
Scarlet with Gauloises, Gauloises on
Scarlet, and so forth), he had already
been using Gauloises cigarette packages
in his collages since 1956 (see c66)
and had included them in a number
of his 1967 collages (see the Comments
for c184). The first of the Gauloises
works in which the blue Gauloises
package is set on a red ground was
done in February 1972 (c289); in June,
Motherwell followed it with a series
of twenty-four numbered works in
which the torn Gauloises packages were
set on painted red grounds. Throughout
156
collages
that summer, he did other collages
with Gauloises wrappers set on gray
and blue grounds, which continued the
numbering of the Gauloises with
Scarlet series, beginning with no. 26
(c315). These were followed by several
series of Gauloises collages on variously
colored grounds, including blue, blue
and green, yellow, and red over yellow.
The numbering of the red
Gauloises series was sometimes contradictory and confusing. This is largely
because, starting with the exhibition of
these works at the Gertrude Kasle
Gallery in December 1972, some of
them were exhibited with numbers different from those originally assigned
by Motherwell. In the following entries
for the works in the series, we have tried
to reestablish the correct numbering
sequences, but this has not always been
possible, since the versos of some works
could not be seen.
The composition of Gauloises with
Scarlet No. 1 was slightly modified
around October 1982, when
Motherwell painted the red ground in
a bit closer to the Gauloises package.
c291
(The ochre color visible in the incised
lines and as a “halo” around the
Gauloises package in this and other
works in the series is the color of the
Upson board support showing
through.) Four related works were
modified in a similar manner around
the same time: Gauloises with Scarlet
(c289); Scarlet with Gauloises No. 4
(c293); Gauloises on Scarlet No. 6
(c295); and Gauloises on Scarlet over
Yellow No. 3 (c333).
Motherwell’s theme-and-variation
approach to this series reflects his
increased involvement with printmaking during the early 1970s.
c292
c291
Scarlet with Gauloises No. 2
1972
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right, incised: RM 72
Verso: Robert Motherwell 19 June
1972 #2
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Private collection, 1972; unknown
owner, ca. 1977; Diane de Harter,
Florida, 1991; [Sotheby’s, New York,
May 16, 2007, lot 137, illus.]; unknown
owner, 2007
solo exhibitions
Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit, 1972,
cat. no. 10, erroneously as Scarlet and
Gauloises No. 24.
Dart Gallery, Chicago, 1976, cat. no. 8,
erroneously as Scarlet with Gauloises
No. 15.
