Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 422
provenance
Helen Frankenthaler, 1971
Gallery Kimura, Ginza, Tokyo, 1959,
illus. n.p.
solo exhibitions
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York,
November 1950, sec. A, cat. no. 4, as
At Five in the Afternoon. Sketch.
Jewish Museum, New York, 1963.
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin
College, Ohio, 1952, cat. no. 8.
Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo,
Brazil, 1961, cat. no. 9, illus. n.p.
Pasadena Art Museum, Calif.,
February 1962, cat. no. 14.
Smith College Museum of Art,
Northampton, Mass., 1963, cat. no. 5,
illus. n.p.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 21, illus.
p. 36; Amsterdam, cat. no. 20, illus.
n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 20; Turin, cat.
no. 20, illus. p. 79 (pl. 19).
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 1, illus. n.p.; Caracas, cat. no. 56,
illus. n.p.; Bogotá, cat. no. 56, illus. n.p.;
Mexico City, cat. no. 1, illus. p. 23.
Art Museum, Princeton University,
N.J., 1973, cat. no. 47.
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1976
(traveling), cat. no. 11, illus. p. 100.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 17, illus. p. 35;
shown in Buffalo only.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1984, cat. no. 39.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1992,
cat. no. 2.
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1994,
cat. no. 5 (replaced mid-show).
Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery,
Columbia University, New York, 1997
(traveling), cat. no. I.2, color illus. p. 97
(pl. 1); shown in New York only.
group exhibitions
Gallery 200, Provincetown, Mass.,
1949.
Städtisches Museum Schloß
Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany,
1954, cat. no. 51, illus. n.p.
United States Pavilion, Brussels World’s
Fair, 1958 (traveling), Brussels, cat.
no. 142; London, cat. no. 30, illus. n.p.;
as Five in the Afternoon.
410
Wollman Hall, New School Art Center,
New York, 1964, cat. no. 37.
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., 1964, cat. no. 24,
cover illus.
Institute of Contemporary Art,
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, 1965, illus. n.p., as Five
in the Afternoon.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1976 (traveling), cat. no. 142.
National Gallery of Art, Washington,
D.C., 1978, cat. no. 2, illus. p. 98
(fig. 3).
references
de Kooning 1949, p. 2; Motherwell
1951, illus. p. 21; Alloway 1960, p. 51,
illus. p. 59 (fig. 8); Vogue 1961, color
illus. p. 90; Motherwell in Smith
College Museum of Art exh. cat. 1963,
n.p.; Hudson 1964, p. 28; Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum exh. cat. January
1964, illus. p. 69; Hudson 1965, sec. G,
p. 7; Lipton 1965, illus. p. 1; O’Hara
1965b, p. 264; Arnason 1966a, p. 35,
illus. p. 31 (fig. 20); Arnason 1966b,
pp. 19, 20, 25–26; Baro 1966b, illus.
p. 37; Bernardi 1966, p. 5; Melville
1966, p. 478; Schneede 1966, p. 32;
Frankenstein 1967a, p. 26; Frankenstein
1967b, illus. p. 37; Rose 1967, p. 181,
illus. p. 178 (ill. 6-29); Arnason 1968,
p. 507, illus. p. 506 (fig. 871); Herner de
Schmelz 1968, illus. p. 13, as Five in the
Afternoon; Arnason 1969, p. 51, illus.
p. 50; Alloway 1970–71, p. 30; Sandler
1970, p. 206, illus. p. 207 (fig. 16-6);
Close 1972a, sec. B, p. 2, illus. sec. B,
p. 2; Close 1972b; D[avis] 1972, p. 69;
Friend 1973, p. 19; Musée Galliera
exh. cat. 1974, illus. p. 70; O’Hara 1975,
pp. 74, 76, illus. p. 75 (fig. 4); Rose
1975, p. 154, illus. p. 152 (ill. 6-25);
Carmean 1976, p. 95; Schmidt 1976,
p. 78; Arnason 1977a, p. 535, illus. p. 535
(fig. 922); Arnason 1977b, pp. 26, 28,
30–31, 108, illus. n.p. (pl. 80); Musée
d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
exh. cat. 1977, illus. n.p.; Pleynet 1977,
pp. 194, 195–96; Power 1977, p. 618;
Carmean 1978, pp. 97, 99, 119, illus.
p. 98 (fig. 3); Fineberg 1978, pp. 53,
55, 56, illus. p. 57; Ashton 1980, p. 8;
Moore 1980, illus. p. 3; Anderson 1981,
pp. 110, 148, 159, 215, 222; [Pleynet]
1981, pp. 23–24; Arnason 1982, pp. 13,
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
26, 28, 30–31, 120, illus. p. 117 (pl. 131);
Ashton 1983, p. 34, illus. p. 35; Clarke
1983, p. 13; Meewis 1983, p. 199, illus.
n.p.; O’Hara 1983, p. 177; Collins 1984,
p. 94, illus. p. 95 (fig. 3); Drudi 1984,
p. 14; Duffy 1984, pp. 60, 92; Fairburn
1984, p. 4; Knight 1984, sec. E, p. 3;
Regan 1984, sec. Review, p. 12; Gaugh
1985, p. 74; Kimball 1985, p. 35;
Mattison 1985b, pp. 234, 239–43, illus.
n.p. (fig. 214); McGill 1985b, illus. p. 7;
Rosand 1985, p. 93; Arnason 1986,
p. 406, illus. p. 407 (fig. 601); Pleynet
1986, pp. 79–81, 83; Brunet-Weinmann
1987, p. 41; Mattison 1987, pp. 200,
203, 204, 205, illus. p. 211 (fig. 82);
Oppler 1988, p. 117; Brooker 1989,
p. 63, illus. p. 67 (fig. 2); Motherwell
in Enright 1989, p. 15; Pleynet 1989b,
pp. 32, 36, 38, color illus. p. 80; Flam
1991, pp. 21–23, color illus. n.p.
(pl. 21); Jennings 1991, p. 19, illus.
p. 19; Polcari 1991, p. 314, illus. p. 314
(fig. 253); Kingsley 1992, pp. 27, 307–9,
313, illus. p. 308; Terenzio 1992b,
p. 114; Gooch 1993, p. 446; Taylor
1993, p. 18; Franzke 1994, p. 7, color
illus. p. 4 (fig. 3); Falgàs 1995, pp. 19,
25, 28, 29, 33, illus. p. 26 (fig. 2);
Fineberg 1995, pp. 70, 71, illus. p. 71
(fig. 3.33); Pleynet 1995, pp. 102–3, 112;
Centre National d’Art et de Culture
Georges Pompidou exh. cat. 1996, illus.
p. 272; Qin 1996, pp. 13, 16, 38, 44,
illus. p. 67 (fig. 1); Rosand 1997, p. 20,
color illus. p. 97 (pl. 1); Tesch and
Hollmann 1997, p. 144; Pleynet 1998,
pp. 94, 96, 100; Scott and Rutkoff
1999, p. 307, as Five O’Clock in the
Afternoon; Fineberg 2000, pp. 70–71,
illus. p. 71 (fig. 3.33); Richardson 2001,
p. 251; Wentrup 2001, pp. 58–59, 65,
illus. (fig. 28); Anfam 2002, pp. 114,
163, illus. p. 114 (fig. 82); Engberg and
Banach 2003, p. 44, illus. p. 44 (fig. 15);
Foster et al. 2004, p. 352, color illus.
p. 352 (fig. 3); Museum Morsbroich
exh. cat. 2004, illus. p. 140; Metropolitan
Museum of Art exh. cat. 2007, color
illus. p. 162 (fig. 35); Haxall 2009,
p. 162.
comments
This small work on paperboard is the
first painting in what would become
Motherwell’s Elegy to the Spanish
Republic series. It is based on an ink
drawing (now in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art; see fig. 44
in volume 1) that he created in 1948,
which included words from a poem by
Harold Rosenberg, “A Bird for Every
Bird,” as part of the composition
(see Chronology). The importance
of that drawing to Motherwell was
made emphatic when he retroactively
gave it the title Elegy to the Spanish
Republic No. 1.
At Five in the Afternoon occupies
an even more crucial place within
Motherwell’s oeuvre than the drawing.
According to Motherwell, he began this
painting toward the end of 1948, when
he recognized the potential of the central motif of the drawing and decided to
make an enlarged, painted version of it,
without the text from the Rosenberg
poem. Initially, what are now the black
forms were painted entirely in light
blue; a small area of this blue is still
visible at the upper right. But shortly
after Motherwell completed the blue
version, he decided to reconceive the
picture entirely in black and white.
Motherwell titled the painting
At Five in the Afternoon, evoking the
opening lines and refrain from Federico
García Lorca’s poem “Llanto por
Ignacio Sánchez Mejías” (Lament
for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías), which
refers to the time of day when the
famed bullfighter Mejías was mortally
wounded: “A las cinco de la tarde. /
Eran las cinco en punto de la tarde”
(At five in the afternoon. / It was
exactly five in the afternoon). This
painting was the first work in which
Motherwell explicitly associated Lorca
with the imagery he would explore in
his Elegy to the Spanish Republic series.
Motherwell frequently kept the
first painting in a series. He held on
to this work until 1971, when it went
to Helen Frankenthaler as part of their
divorce settlement. The loss of this seminal work drove him to re-create it on a
much larger scale in 1971 (see p647).
