Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 17
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1978
(traveling), Ithaca and New York, illus.
p. 90 (fig. 93); Tokyo, illus. n.p.
pp. 40, 130, 166, illus. p. 167 (ill. 113);
Engberg and Banach 2003, p. 42; Peggy
Guggenheim Collection exh. cat. 2003,
pp. 78, 295, 310, 350, color illus. p. 140
(pl. 46), illus. p. 308 (fig. 138); Gilbert
2004b, pp. 315, 317–19, 321–22, 331,
335, illus. p. 316 (fig. 1); Taylor 2004,
p. 105; McNatt 2006, illus. sec. E, p. 4;
Arca, Chiesa di San Marco, exh. cat.
2008, illus. p. 128 (in exhibition), color
illus. p. 138.
references
Greenberg 1944b, p. 599; Janis and
Blesh 1962, illus. p. 162 (fig. 216);
Carver 1965, p. 6; Charmet 1965,
p. 168; Kay 1965, p. 4; O’Hara 1965b,
p. 264; Arnason 1966a, p. 24, illus. p. 25
(fig. 3); Robertson 1966a, p. 89, illus.
p. 89; Ashton 1967, illus. p. 34; Bowness
1967, p. 288, illus. p. 286; Wescher
1968, p. 301, color illus. p. 263 (pl. 37);
Ashton 1972, illus. p. 120 (fig. 23);
Kelder 1972, p. 100; Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, exh. cat. 1972, illus.
p. 11 (fig. 1); Volboudt 1973b, p. 84;
Wilmerding 1973, illus. p. 283; Arnason
1977b, pp. 19–20; Pleynet 1977,
pp. 189–90; Bonet 1980, p. 17; Lader
1981, pp. 209, 273–74; Arnason 1982,
pp. 19–20, illus. p. 20 (pl. 8a); AlbrightKnox Art Gallery Calendar 1983, p. 3;
Bonet 1983, p. 135; McClintic 1984,
p. 39; Kimball 1985, pp. 32–33; Mattison
1985b, pp. 87, 102–8, 111, 132, 134, 141,
149–50, 155, 226, illus. n.p. (fig. 63);
Rudenstine 1985, p. 583; Greenberg
1986a, p. 240; Pleynet 1986, pp. 71, 72;
Mattison 1987, pp. 71, 80–82, 92, 94,
111, 112, 125, 127, 197, illus. p. 85
(fig. 25); Gibson 1988, p. 209, illus.
p. 209 (fig. 1); Mattison 1988, pp. 172–
76, 182–83, illus. p. 173 (fig. 1); Pleynet
1989b, pp. 21, 23–25, 29, 32, color illus.
p. 22; Pythoud 1990, p. 97; Shapiro
and Shapiro 1990, p. 197; Flam 1991,
color illus. n.p. (pl. 5); Terenzio 1992b,
p. 291; Belgrad 1994, p. 332, illus. p. 333
(fig. 5-3); Franzke 1994, p. 7, color illus.
p. 4 (fig. 2); Sawin 1995, pp. 334, 361,
illus. p. 335; Caws 1996b, pp. 24, 38,
77, illus. p. 25, referred to in text and in
illus. as La Joie de vivre; Belgrad 1998,
p. 136; Chalumeau 1998, color illus.
p. 10 (pl. 1); Gilbert 1998, pp. 18,
39–41, 51, 55–57, 94, 96, 346, 351–52,
427–29, 431–32, 435–37, 442–46, 448,
452–55, 457–58, 463–64, 466, 468–69,
471, 478, 481–82, 499–501, illus. p. 519
(fig. 4); Ward 1998, p. 54; Museo
Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
exh. cat. 1999, illus. p. 232; Caws 2003,
comments
This work is Motherwell’s first largerformat collage, done right after his
experiments with the medium in
Pollock’s studio early in 1943. “A few
days later,” he recalled, “my friend
Matta dropped by and he said, ‘Those
are really you, I can tell. Why don’t
you make some bigger ones and more
of them,’ and so on, and with that
encouragement I went on and for a
long time I was the only American
painter who also made collages”
(Catherine Tatge, Robert Motherwell
and the New York School: Storming the
Citadel, 1991; see Filmography).
Among the varied collage elements
in this work is a fragment of a military
training map (at the upper right), in
which the names of French battles
from World War I are overlaid onto the
geography of the countryside at Fort
Benning, Georgia (see fig. 21 in volume
1). Such maps were used in military
extension courses and would have
been available to Motherwell in New
York City as well as through friends in
the army. The military map refers to the
war then raging in Europe, so the title
Joy of Living is no doubt meant to be
ironic (see Gilbert 2004b). Fragments
of this military map also appear in two
other collages, The Painter (c12) and
View from a High Tower (c17). The pink
paper used near the center of this collage was originally a bright magenta,
which can be seen in its original,
unfaded state in Untitled (c2).
Joy of Living was first shown in
Exhibition of Collage at Art of This
Century in April 1943, the first
American exhibition devoted to works
in what was then a rarely used medium
in the United States. This is the first
work by Motherwell to enter a museum
collection; it was purchased by Saidie A.
May on May 11, 1943 (along with
William Baziotes’s collage The Drugged
Balloonist; see fig. 17 in volume 1), for
the Baltimore Museum of Art. It was
Baltimore Museum of Art, 1972,
illus. p. 13, illus. p. 50.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1976 (traveling), cat. no. 139.
Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York,
1977, cat. no. 115, illus. n.p.
c4
shown again in Motherwell’s solo debut
at Art of This Century in October
1944, when Clement Greenberg noted,
“The big smoky collage Joy of Living—
which seems to me to hint at the joy
of danger and terror, of the threats to
living—is not half as achieved as the
perfect and Picasso-ish Jeune Fille, yet
it points Motherwell’s only direction:
that is, the direction he must go to realize his talent—of which he has plenty”
(Greenberg 1944b).
c4
The Displaced Table
1943
Tempera, pasted wood veneer, pasted
papers, ink, graphite, and colored
pencil on canvas
41 x 30 in. (104.1 x 76.2 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right [partially obscured by
framing mat]: Motherw[ell]
present owner
Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Gift of Robert H. Halff through the
Modern and Contemporary Art
Council
provenance
Dwight Ripley, New York, 1944;
Robert H. Halff and Carl W. Johnson,
1976; Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, 2005
co lla ges
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