Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 207
c402
c402
Poe No. 1
Alternative Title: [ Edgar Allan Poe Series
(Poe No. 1) ]
1973/1985
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: R Motherwell
19 Nov 73
artist’s studio number
c73-1451
present owner
The Columbus Museum, Ga. Museum
purchase made possible by Evelyn
Crowley; Kathleen M. Hohlstein;
Janet Bowers Hollis, in memory of
Howell Hollis; Dora E. Jackson; Polly
C. Miller, in honor of her mother,
Betty Corn; Mr. and Mrs. Richard I.
Norman; Jill Chancey Phillips; Maxine
R. Schiffman; Kathelen V. Spencer;
Teresa Pike Tomlinson, in memory of
Hellen Gregory Pike; Mr. and Mrs. Joe
Windsor; special assistance from the
Ella E. Kirven Charitable Lead Trust
for Acquisitions; and a gift of the
Dedalus Foundation, New York
2003.13.4
p. 39, as Edgar Allan Poe Series (Poe
No. 1).
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Columbus
Museum, Ga., 2000
references
Gilcrease Museum exh. cat. 2006,
color illus. p. 15 (fig. 19).
solo exhibitions
William Benton Museum of Art,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1979,
cat. no. 64 (brochure), as Poe No. 1
(19 Nov. 1973); cat. no. 67 (catalogue);
shown in early state.
comments
An early version of Poe No. 1 was
created in 1973 and exhibited at the
William Benton Museum in 1979. That
state of the work served as the model
for the 1978 monotype and collage
print Abyss, 1978 (Engberg and Banach
2003, no. 228). In 1985 Motherwell
Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea,
Milan, 1989, cat. no. 12, color illus.
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona,
1996 (traveling), cat. no. 46, color
illus. p. 173, as Edgar Allan Poe Series
(Poe #1).
Columbus Museum, Ga., 2000, color
illus. n.p., as Edgar Allen Poe Series
(Poe #1).
revised the work, adding the torn piece
of a black-and-white print at the center
of the picture.
The four collages in the Poe series
were all begun in November 1973
(see also c403–c405). Two additional
unnumbered works followed: Edgar
Allan Poe Series (The House of Usher) of
1974 (c464), and Edgar Allan Poe Series
(Poe’s Music) of 1975 (c510).
The Poe series pays homage to the
author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849),
of whom Motherwell said in a 1971
interview with Paul Cummings: “Well,
I think modern art is the Symbolist
movement. And in that sense it was
started by an American—Edgar Allan
Poe” (see “Writings by the Artist,” in
the Bibliography).
co lla ges
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