Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 356
c742
Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York,
2005, cover color illus.
comments
A 1966 version of this work, titled
Guardian No. 2, consisted of a gray
ground with pieces of pages from
the Manchester Guardian Weekly pasted
in the center, with sepia ink splashed
over them (Sloman photo no. 49).
The blue ground and black gestural
brushstrokes were added in 1986,
when Motherwell had many of his
1966–67 Guardian collages brought
from storage to his studio in Greenwich,
as part of the selection process for a
1986 exhibition at the Sala Pelaires in
Palma de Mallorca. During the summer of 1986, he extensively reworked
the group of six collages, painting the
gray and ochre backgrounds a deep
shade of ultramarine blue and adding
violent black gestural brushstrokes to
most of them. Following these revisions, he renamed the collages in the
series The Figure “4,” while maintaining
the series numbers from the earlier
344
collages
Guardian series; thus, The Guardian
No. 2 became The Figure “4” No. 2, etc.
See the Comments for Guardian No. 1
(c170).
c743
c743
The Figure “4” No. 3
Alternative Title: Guardian No. 3
1966/1986
Acrylic, pasted papers, and ink on
paperboard
22 x 14 in. (55.9 x 35.6 cm)
InscrIptIons
Recto, lower center: Motherwell 1966
ArtIst’s studIo number
c66-380
present owner
Private collection, New York
provenAnce
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; private
collection, New York, 2006
Group exhIbItIons
Sala Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca,
Spain, 1986 (traveling), cat. no. 8, color
illus. n.p.
New York Studio School, 2003, cat.
no. 14.
references
Gilbert 2004a, p. 61.
comments
Regarding the revision and retitling of
this work, see the Comments for c742.
The blue collage element is a wrapper
from Amaretti di Saronno.
