Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 239
c475
c475
Finnegans Wake No. 1
1974
Acrylic, pasted papers, and china
marker on Upson board
72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 74
revisions were done, but the work was
complete by the time it was exhibited at
the Ace Gallery in 1975.
Motherwell gave three numbered
collages titles that refer directly to
James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (see also
c474 and c476); the irregular numbering sequence included only numbers 1,
6, and 7.
c476
c476
Finnegans Wake VII, with
Green
Alternative Title: French Door VII
1974–75/1976/1984
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm)
present owner
Unknown
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: 74 R Motherwell
provenance
Private collection, 1975; private
collection; unknown owner
Verso [circled ]: [N.F.S. RM]
solo exhibitions
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, 1975.
present owner
Collection of the Modern Art Museum
of Fort Worth. Museum purchase, the
Friends of Art Endowment Fund
comments
An early version of this work appears in
a 1974 black-and-white photograph
(studio inventory photo no. ph 61-2); it
has a two-toned ground and is signed
and dated “1 Sept 74.” Motherwell later
revised the work, extending the dark
forms in the top section to the entire
ground, and adding two white lines in
china marker; he then re-signed the
work. It is not certain when these final
artist’s studio number
c74-2809
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Modern Art
Museum of Fort Worth, 1993
solo exhibitions
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, 1975 (shown
in early state), as Finnegan’s Wake #7.
Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, 1978
(shown in early state).
Provincetown Art Association and
Museum, Mass., 1983 (traveling)
(shown in early state).
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
1993.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
1994.
The Modern at Sundance Square,
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
1998.
group exhibitions
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston,
1982, color illus. p. 78; shown in early
state.
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton,
N.Y., 1991.
references
Forman 1983, p. 13; Tyson 1993a, p. 1;
Caws 2003, color illus. p. 141 (ill. 91).
comments
This collage was begun in 1974 as
French Door VII, and studio photographs show that Motherwell extensively reworked the colors of the
ground numerous times before it was
first shown under the title Finnegans
co lla ges
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