Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 332
c689
c689
Venetian Blue Sea Bride
1984
Acrylic and pasted papers on canvas
mounted on board
72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: R Motherwell 84
artist’s studio number
c84-3018
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Private collection, 1984
solo exhibitions
Knoedler & Company, New York,
October 1984, cat. no. 3, color illus.
p. 4.
references
Raynor 1984b, sec. C, p. 1, erroneously
as Venetian Blue Bride; Seeney 1984,
p. 8.
320
collages
comments
This collage incorporates at its center
a fragment of a 1977 print, Gesture I
(State I) (Engberg and Banach 2003,
no. 203). The title echoes that of the
Baltic Sea Bride series (see c431–c435).
c690
c690
How to Dance Sitting Down
1984
Acrylic and pasted papers on wood
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: Motherwell 84
artist’s studio number
c84-3031
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Private collection, 1984
solo exhibitions
Knoedler & Company, New York,
October 1984, cat. no. 13, color illus.
p. 8.
references
Berman 1985, p. 108; Motherwell in
Perry 1985, sec. 13, p. 20; Perry 1985,
sec. 13, p. 20.
comments
Regarding the title of this collage,
Motherwell stated in a 1985 interview,
“I’ve just found a marvelous title for
c691
a joyful collage. It’s two lines from a
Charles Olson poem: ‘How to dance/
Sitting down.’ They are a small present
from the outside world: a perfect metaphoric equivalent in words for that
light-hearted summery colored abstraction” (see Motherwell in Perry 1985).
The line is from Olson’s book
The Maximus Poems, published in 1960.
The sheet music is from the manuscript
score of the same unidentified Stabat
Mater as the one in c687.
