Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 427
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title of this work, Spanish Elegy XIV
(Palamos), under which it had been
shown in 1953 and 1954, had been
overlooked or forgotten. The painting
was consigned in 1958 to the Sidney
Janis Gallery as Spanish Elegy XXV-B,
and it was subsequently sold and shown
under that title. We have restored the
original title of the work, which more
accurately reflects its place among the
Elegies painted in 1953.
Motherwell’s solo exhibition at
the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery in April
1953, where this work was first shown,
marked the first public presentation of
works from his Elegy to the Spanish
Republic series in which the works were
given numbers. In addition to Spanish
Elegy XIV (Palamos), Motherwell also
showed Spanish Elegy (Alcaraz) XV
(p148), Spanish Elegy XVI (Molina de
Segura) (a 1953 ink-on-paper drawing;
fig. 53 in volume 1), and Spanish Elegy
XVII (Segura) (p149). In the titles of
these works, Motherwell continued his
previous practice of using city names
for works in the Elegy series, which he
had begun in 1949 with Granada (p86)
and Málaga (p91), but he now numbered them with Roman numerals. (In
his 1952 solo exhibition at the Kootz
Gallery, he had tried another variation
in the format of the titles by having
“España” in parentheses follow the city
name: for example, Andújar (España);
see p128 and p130–p132.)
In 1961, Motherwell retroactively
numbered the drawing that had inspired
the series as a whole, calling it Elegy to
the Spanish Republic No. 1 (see fig. 44
in volume 1), which is the only number
lower than 14 in the series.
Despite the small size of Spanish
Elegy XIV (Palamos), it served as a catalyst for several large-scale paintings
done during the latter half of the 1950s,
such as Elegy to the Spanish Republic
No. 58 (p218) and Diary of a Painter
(p169) (see fig. 207 in volume 1).
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comments
The title Elegy Study was given to this
work in 1983. This painting may have
been revised around 1958.
Elegy Study
1954
Oil on paperboard
26½ x 39½ in. (67.3 x 100.3 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 54
artist’s studio number
p54-1474
present owner
Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchased with
funds from an anonymous donor, with
support from the Dedalus Foundation,
1998
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Art Gallery
of Ontario, Toronto, 1998
solo exhibitions
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1992,
cat. no. 4.
group exhibitions
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1983,
cat. no. 15.
p a i n tin gs on paper and paperbo ard
415
