Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 297
c605
c606
Port de Boston
Alternative Titles: Air 8; Bugatti
1973/1975–77
Acrylic, pasted cardboard, pasted
canvas, and pasted papers on canvas
mounted on board
30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
provenance
Private collection, 1978; private
collection, 2008
solo exhibitions
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1974,
cat. no. 12 (shown in early state), as Air 8.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: R Motherwell 75
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh,
1977.
Recto, upper right [painted over]:
[R. Motherwell 25 Dec 73–75]
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1978,
cat. no. 1, color illus. p. 12 (in exhibition), illus. p. 23.
Verso: “bugatti (1881–1947)” collage
on canvas panel R. Motherwell 1975
artist’s studio number
c75-1256
present owner
Private collection
group exhibitions
Long Point Gallery, Provincetown,
Mass., August 1978, cat. no. 2.
Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, 1978.
references
Kramer 1974a, p. 21, as Air 8; Clarke
1983, p. 13; Drudi 1983, color illus. n.p.
c606
comments
An early version of this work contained
only a yellow ground and a single piece
of cardboard featuring a printed number 8; it was signed and dated “25 Dec
73” at the upper right and was exhibited under the title Air 8 at Knoedler &
Company in April 1974. Motherwell
reworked the collage extensively after
that show, and titled it Bugatti, after the
celebrated automobile designer Ettore
Bugatti; that version, which had a predominantly red ground and a pasted
element bearing the insignia of the
Italian car manufacturer, was photographed in November 1975 (Sloman
photo no. 315). This collage was given
its final form and retitled Port de Boston
in the spring of 1977. See also Port de
Boston II (c607); the title refers to the
printed customs label placed near the
bottom center, part of which reads:
“Produce of France, Port de Boston.”
c607
Port de Boston II
1977
Acrylic, pasted canvas, and pasted
papers on canvas mounted on board
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: RM 77
artist’s studio number
c77-953
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Private collection, 1980; [Sotheby’s,
New York, November 15, 2006, lot 193,
illus.]; private collection, 2006
references
Arnason 1982, color illus. p. 192
(pl. 265); Flam 1991, color illus. n.p.
co lla ges
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