Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 285
c578
c578
Alphabet C
references
Drudi 1983, color illus. n.p.; Kessler
1997, sec. A, p. 3.
Alternative Title: C
1976
Acrylic and pasted papers on canvas
board
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
comments
Our reproduction of this work comes
from the 1987 Sotheby Parke Bernet
auction catalogue.
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: Motherwell 7 July
1976
artist’s studio number
c76-950; c76-1189
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Private collection, 1979; [Sotheby Parke
Bernet, Inc., New York, October 7,
1987, lot 122, illus.]; unknown owner,
1987
group exhibitions
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson,
N.Y., 1977, as C.
Turske & Turske, Zurich, 1985, color
illus. n.p.
c579
c579
The Window
Alternative Title: London Collage
1976/1985
Acrylic and pasted papers on canvas
board
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 8 Aug 76
artist’s studio number
c76-1213; c76-3351
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Private collection, 1988
solo exhibitions
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977 (shown in early state), as
London Collage.
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1978,
cat. no. 8, color illus. p. 13 (in exhibition), illus. p. 23; shown in early state,
as London Collage.
comments
Motherwell set the composition of this
work in 1976, and the first version of it
was shown in Paris in 1977 and at
Knoedler & Company in 1978 under
its original title, London Collage. That
first version contained areas of green
between the pink verticals and above
and below the central collage element,
which includes a shipping label from a
package sent by Robert Lewis, a tobacco
company in London, that was the
source of the original title. Motherwell
made revisions to the work in 1985,
according to studio records dated April
4, 1985, which state: “was revised 1985
or additions 1985.” These revisions,
which did not alter the overall composition, included the addition of the
brushy areas of ochre paint over the
previous fields of green. The work was
retitled The Window when it was consigned to Knoedler & Company in
November 1987.
co lla ges
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