Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 238
c473
c473
French Door V
1974/1975
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
72 x 24 in. (182.9 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: Motherwell
28 Aug 74
artist’s studio number
c74-1009
present owner
Collection of the Butler Institute of
American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.
Museum purchase and gift of the
Dedalus Foundation 1994
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Butler
Institute of American Art, Youngstown,
Ohio, 1994
solo exhibitions
David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto, 1975
(shown in early state).
group exhibitions
Butler Trumbull County Branch
Museum, Howland, Ohio, 1996.
226
collages
references
Staber 1974–75, p. 121; Rothschild
1978a, illus. p. 48 (in studio); Raynor
1994, illus. sec. 13, p. 18 (in studio);
Sweetkind 1997, illus. p. 125.
comments
This is the sole remaining numbered
work in the French Door series. The
titles of three other numbered works in
the series were changed (see c464,
c474, and c476). The David Mirvish
Gallery exhibited an early version of
this work in spring 1975 (studio inventory no. ph 61-1). It was returned to
the artist at the end of May 1975, and
sometime after that he added black
paint in the lower half of the work, over
the original orange ground. It was photographed in its final state sometime
around 1977.
c474
c474
Silver Music
Alternative Titles: French Door VI;
Finnegans Wake No. 6
1974/1975
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
72 x 24 in. (182.9 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: Motherwell 74
present owner
Fayez Sarofim Collection
provenance
Meredith Long & Company, 1976;
Fayez Sarofim, 1984
solo exhibitions
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, 1975 (shown
in early state), as Finnegan’s Wake #6.
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1976,
cat. no. 2.
references
Glenn 1982a, color illus. p. 108.
comments
A black-and-white photograph of the
earliest known version of this work
shows it to have had a two-toned
ground, with a darker tone in the upper
portion (studio inventory photo no. ph
61-4). This early version, originally
titled French Door VI and dated August
29, 1974, was consigned to Knoedler &
Company in 1974 and returned to the
artist in January 1975. Motherwell subsequently revised the colors of the
ground and exhibited the new version
at the Ace Gallery in July–August 1975
under the title Finnegans Wake No. 6.
Sometime after the work was
returned from the Ace Gallery in
October 1975, Motherwell again revised
it, repainting the entire ground a single
blue-gray hue and adding the blue
paper collage element and sheet music
from Mozart’s “Sehnsucht nach dem
Frühlinge” (Longing for the Springtime;
k. 596). The collage was then retitled
Silver Music and sent to Knoedler,
where it was sold in January 1976.
