Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 291
c594
c593
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Sign with Stripes
The Life of Will Grohmann
Arte
1977
Acrylic, pasted canvas, pasted papers,
and graphite on canvas board
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
1977
Acrylic and pasted papers on canvas
mounted on board
48 x 36 in. (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
Ca. 1977
Acrylic, pasted canvas, and pasted
papers on canvas mounted on board
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left, incised: R Motherwell
77
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: R. Motherwell
23 March 77
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
artist’s studio number
c77-2530
artist’s studio number
c77-924
present owner
Private collection
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Private collection, 1990
provenance
Private collection, 1979; unknown owner
references
Drudi 1983, color illus. n.p.
comments
The mailing label pasted in the lower
center of this collage is addressed to
Motherwell from an unidentified person
named Grohmann in Munich. This
apparently led Motherwell to think of
Will Grohmann (1887–1968), a German
art historian and critic who wrote books
on Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and
German Expressionism, and who was
a staunch defender of abstraction and
internationalism in art.
artist’s studio number
c77-952
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Private collection, 1982; [Sotheby Parke
Bernet, Inc., New York, October 31,
1984, lot 16, illus.]; Meshulam Riklis,
1984; [Christie’s, New York, May 4,
1994, lot 146, illus.]; private collection,
1994; Mr. and Mrs. Bozora, 1994; private collection, 2003
c595
references
Crossley 1978, sec. E, p. 15; Moser
1978, sec. 3, p. 9.
comments
This work takes its title from the label
for Arte, an Italian brand of canvas, that
is placed near the center. Motherwell is
said to have signed and dated this work
1976 at the upper right, but if this is so,
he subsequently painted over the signature, which presumably belonged to
an earlier painting that is now covered
by the collage elements. Studio records
date this work to 1977, and it was first
exhibited as a work from 1977 at the
Janie C. Lee Gallery in 1978.
solo exhibitions
Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, 1978.
group exhibitions
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston,
1982.
co lla ges
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