Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 23
(fig. 26), referred to in text and in illus.
as Surprise and Inspiration; Mattison
1988, pp. 172, 174, 176–78, illus. p. 175
(fig. 2), referred to in text and in illus.
as Surprise and Inspiration; Wallock
1988, color illus. p. 134 (fig. 138, as
Personage [Surprise and Inspiration]);
Terenzio 1992b, p. 291, as Surprise
and Inspiration; Krens et al. 1993, color
illus. p. 223 (pl. 94); Falgàs 1995, p. 22,
as Surprise and Inspiration; Krens
et al. 1997, p. 193, color illus. p. 195
(fig. 159); Gilbert 1998, pp. 39, 94, 96,
346, 444, illus. p. 520 (fig. 50), referred
to in text and in illus. as Surprise and
Inspiration; Vail 1998, color illus. p. 66;
Krens and Rylands 2000, p. 154, color
illus. p. 155 (pl. 77); Caws 2003, illus.
p. 87 (ill. 57); Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum exh. cat. 2003, pp. 80, 310,
311, 353, illus. p. 308 (fig. 138); Taylor
2004, p. 105, color illus. p. 102 (pl. 103),
referred to in text and in illus. as Surprise
and Inspiration; Waldman 2006, p. 200,
color illus. p. 200 (fig. 71); Ashton and
Banach 2007, illus. p. 47; Arca, Chiesa
di San Marco, exh. cat. 2008, color
illus. p. 139, illus. p. 140 (in exhibition).
comments
Motherwell wrote that this collage was
“originally entitled by me Wounded
Personage, a title and an image that
struck Meyer Shapiro [sic] very much
when I showed it to him” (letter to
Robert Mattison, dated August 20,
1979; see “Writings by the Artist,” in
the Bibliography). The collage was
nonetheless first exhibited as Personnage
(using the French spelling of the word)
at Art of This Century in April 1944
and only a few months later as Personage
(Autoportrait) in Motherwell’s October
1944 solo exhibition at Art of This
Century (where it was erroneously dated
1944, despite the 1943 dates inscribed
on both the recto and the verso). By the
time of Motherwell’s solo exhibition,
Peggy Guggenheim had already purchased the work for her gallery. (This
purchase was in part an exchange with
Motherwell for his painting The Sentinel,
which she had purchased in early 1943
and later returned to him; see the
Comments for p10.) In 1945, this collage was reproduced next to the title
of an essay by Wolfgang Paalen called
“Surprise and Inspiration” (Paalen
1945), and as a result Peggy Guggenheim
mistakenly assigned that title to it—
which it retained for many years.
c8
Motherwell considered this work
a self-portrait, and in his statement
for the catalogue of the 1945 David
Porter Gallery exhibition A Painting
Prophecy—1950, he discussed this work
in relation to his views about the expressive potential of his art: “To begin with,
this picture is not abstract. . . . But if
my picture is not abstract, it is imaginative. Its feeling–content happens to
be just how I feel to myself (hence its
name, ‘Autoportrait’), expressed as
directly and cleanly and relevantly as
I can communicate the concrete felt
pattern of my senses. How I feel is not
how I look; naturally then I have not
represented my visage. This is the justification for the non-representational
means employed in this work. Nonrepresentation for its own sake is no
more though no less interesting than
representation for itself. There simply
happen to be certain problems of
expression which representational
means cannot solve. . . . The main
thing is not to be frightened. Or rather,
since this is impossible, to act as if one
is not” (reprinted in Motherwell 2007,
p. 46). Within this context, the conflation of the depicted figure’s head with
the form of an artist’s palette is especially noteworthy.
c9
Collage in Black and Green
Ca. 1943–44
Oil and pasted papers on paperboard
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
inscriptions
Unknown
present owner
Unknown (said to have been destroyed,
date unknown)
provenance
The artist
references
Claus 1965, illus. p. 5, as Ohne Titel
(Untitled); Arnason 1966a, pp. 24, 33,
illus. p. 26 (fig. 7); Arnason 1966b,
pp. 19, 25; Wescher 1968, p. 301, erroneously as In Green and White; Arnason
1969, p. 51; Arnason 1976, p. 13;
Arnason 1977b, pp. 29, 73, illus. p. 29
co lla ges
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