Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 323
c668
c668
Night Music
1981
Acrylic and pasted papers on canvas
board
30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
deutsches Kriegslied” (A German War
Song; k. 539) is placed near the center,
upside down.
In 1988 Motherwell did a series of
collages in which he used the title Night
Music (see c825–c851).
c669
c669
The Irish Troubles
1977–81
Acrylic and pasted cardboard on canvas
mounted on board
72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 81
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: RM 81
Recto, lower left: RM 81
artist’s studio number
c81-983
artist’s studio number
c81-2612
present owner
Collection of Gordon and Hannareta
Fishman
provenance
Private collection, New York, 1981;
[Sotheby’s, New York, November 16,
1995, lot 311, illus.]; Gordon and
Hannareta Fishman, 1995
comments
The upper portion of this collage
contains a fragment of a 1979 print,
St. Michael III (Engberg and Banach
2003, no. 237). A torn fragment of
sheet music from Mozart’s “Ein
present owner
Olive M. Jenney
provenance
Olive M. Jenney, 1985
solo exhibitions
Provincetown Art Association and
Museum, Mass., 1983 (traveling).
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 88, color illus.
p. 120.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1984, cat. no. 26.
references
Advocate Summer Guide 1983b, p. 3;
Forman 1983, p. 13, illus. p. 13; Hayes
1984, p. 44; Inje 1984, p. 13; Shere 1984,
sec. Calendar, p. 4; Pleynet 1989b,
color illus. p. 174; Sullivan 1990, color
illus. p. 181; Polcari 1991, p. 308; Franzke
1994, p. 11, color illus. p. 13 (fig. 15).
comments
This collage was begun in 1977, as a work
with a white ground and a blue Gauloises
cigarette package at its lower center (Sloman
photo no. 475). In 1981 Motherwell tore off
the Gauloises package, added the painted
piece of cardboard, and repainted the
ground its present color.
The title of the work refers to the
conflict over British rule of Northern
Ireland. Motherwell may have meant
the title specifically to commemorate the
deaths of ten prisoners, including Bobby
Sands, who was elected to the British
Parliament while still in prison and who
was the first prisoner to die in the 1981
hunger strikes. The main issue for the
protesters was that they be classified
as political prisoners, and Motherwell
clearly sympathized with their demands
for human dignity.
co lla ges
311
