Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 263
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c528
Elegy for Salvador Allende
Alternative Title: Chilean Collage No. 1
1975/ca. 1977
Acrylic, pasted papers, and china
marker on canvas mounted on board
72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: Motherwell
Sept 75
Verso [covered by strainer]: “Elegy for
Salvador Allende” R Motherwell
19[illegible]
artist’s studio number
c75-1216
present owner
Private collection, Geneva
provenance
Private collection, Geneva, ca. 1989
solo exhibitions
Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, 1976
(shown in early state), as Chilean
Collage #1.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1978,
cat. no. 43.
William Benton Museum of Art,
University of Connecticut, Storrs,
1979, cat. no. 78 (brochure); cat. no. 77
(catalogue), illus. p. 12, illus. p. 44 (in
exhibition), illus. p. 48 (in exhibition),
color illus. p. 107 (in exhibition).
references
Oliver 1977; Morrin 1979, p. 13; Raynor
1979, sec. 23, p. 14; Catoir 1980, p. 286,
illus. p. 289 (fig. 12); Das Kunstwerk
1980, illus. p. 51; Drudi 1983, color illus.
n.p., as Elegy (for Salvadore Allende);
Rodari 1988, p. 132, color illus. p. 132.
comments
The collage element near the center of
this work is a torn purple-and-white
poster for a performance by the
Chilean folk ensemble Quilapayún.
The group’s popularity and influence
were greatest during the time of
Salvador Allende’s democratically
elected government in Chile (1970–73),
which was overthrown in a military
coup d’état on September 11, 1973,
during which Allende was killed. In the
c529
years after the coup, the political views
of Quilapayún forced it into exile.
An early version of this collage,
titled Chilean Collage No. 1, was exhibited in 1976 at the Janie C. Lee Gallery;
it already included the pieces of the
Quilapayún poster, but the background
was predominately gray. Motherwell
revised the work sometime after it was
returned to him in October of that year,
adding the black-painted areas and
additional torn papers to the lower half.
It was photographed in this final state in
February 1977 (Sloman photo no. 458).
The title of the collage was changed
before it was exhibited in Paris that June.
c529
Chilean Revolutionary Collage
Alternative Titles: Chilean Collage;
Chilean Revolutionary Collage No. 2
1975
Acrylic, pasted papers, and china
marker on canvas mounted on
Masonite
72 x 24 in. (182.9 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: Motherwell
2 Sept 75
artist’s studio number
c75-1217
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
solo exhibitions
Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit, 1975,
cat. no. 9, as Chilean Collage (revised
from the erroneous title Chile Collage
#2 listed in gallery brochure).
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
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