Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 274
c550
comments
The brown wrapping paper in the lower
half of this collage contains a label
from Leslie Waddington Prints, Ltd.,
in London, addressed to Brooke
Alexander, Inc., in New York (postmarked February 28, 1975). Though
Motherwell signed an early state of this
work with the date 1975, studio photographs indicate that it was not completed until the following year. Leslie
Waddington and Brooke Alexander
were dealers who handled Motherwell’s
print editions during the 1970s.
c551
Kierkegaard’s Room
Alternative Title: The Barbarians’ Tent
1975–76
Acrylic, pasted canvas, and pasted
papers on canvas mounted on board
72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: Motherwell Aug 75
artist’s studio number
c75-5220
present owner
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris. Gift of the artist, 1978
provenance
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1978
solo exhibitions
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1976
(traveling), cat. no. 59, color illus. p. 87,
illus. p. 113.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
262
collages
c551
group exhibitions
Centre Culturel Américain, U.S.
Embassy, Paris, 1979.
references
Arnason 1976, pp. 22, 25, color illus.
p. 22, referred to in text and in illus. as
The Barbarian’s Tent; Arnason 1977b,
p. 86, color illus. n.p. (pls. 292, in studio, in progress, 293), referred to in
text and in illus. as The Barbarians’ Tent;
Motherwell in Arnason 1977b, n.p.;
Centro Cultural de la Caixa de
Pensions exh. cat. 1980, illus. n.p. (in
studio, in progress); Anderson 1981,
p. 159; Briot 1981, p. 301, color illus.
p. 301 (fig. 12, erroneously as Dionysos
sic et non); Arnason 1982, color illus.
p. 85 (pl. 86, in studio, in progress),
illus. p. 86 (pl. 92); Clarke 1983, illus.
p. 13, as The Barbarians’ Tent.
comments
The collage element near the center
of this work is part of an envelope
that contains a label addressed to
Motherwell by the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris. Though signed on the
recto “Aug 75,” this collage was
photographed in early states in
September and November of 1975
(Sloman photo nos. 223 and 344), and
was completed by March 16, 1976
(Sloman photo no. 387). Motherwell
originally called the work The
Barbarians’ Tent, and it was published
as such in Arnason 1977b, but with a
note by Motherwell in the caption to
plate 293, saying: “P.S. I later changed
my mind about the title and now call it
Kierkegaard’s Room” (Motherwell in
Arnason 1977b).
