Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 43
c34
p. 307; Caws 1996b, p. 21, illus. p. 22,
color illus. n.p.; Gordon 2001, p. 50;
Richardson 2001, p. 246; Caws 2003,
color illus. p. 35 (ill. 24).
comments
The word viva (in both Spanish and
Italian, literally “it lives”; figuratively
“long live”) has a graffito-like presence
in this work, as though it were written
on a wall. In fact, the interlocking
double-V sign on the left side of the
work is seen written on walls in photographs and films from the period (such
as Roberto Rossellini’s Open City, which
was shown in New York in February
1946; see fig. 27 in volume 1), and it is
still sometimes seen among graffiti on
walls in Italy, where VV (the Italian
character for the letter W ) is a compressed sign for “Viva.” The graffiti-like
writing in this work relates it to the Walls
of Europe series Motherwell mentioned
to Dorothy Miller in a letter dated May
22, 1946 (see “Writings by the Artist,”
in the Bibliography). Other fragmentary
words appear in the painting: la q and
ifro (or iero) in white, and vio in red.
The combination of the word viva and
the letters la q may refer to words from
a well-known Spanish Civil War song,
“Viva la quinta brigada.” Motherwell’s
intense interest in political imagery is
evident in a 1948 account by an anonymous writer of a visit to his studio,
in which it is noted that Motherwell
showed “some of the posters from war
shattered countries, which he had
clipped out of a magazine” (unpublished 1948 essay, typescript in the
Dedalus Foundation Archives).
The word viva is also written in
two other collages from this period
(c10 and c17).
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c34
c35
Summer Collage
Composition with Red Circle
Oil, pasted paper, and sand on board
10 x 9 in. (25.4 x 22.9 cm)
1946
Gouache, watercolor, pasted papers,
and ink on paper
12¼ x 9¼ in. (31.1 x 23.5 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: Motherwell
Verso: Motherwell 46
Verso [partially painted over]: “summer
[“]collage” [with] [3] [letters]”
present owner
John F. Goldsmith
provenance
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery; Morton R.
Goldsmith, ca. 1946; John F. Goldsmith,
ca. 1984
group exhibitions
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1990,
cat. no. 109, color illus. p. 69.
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: R.M. 46
present owner
Collection of Caroline and Stephen
Adler
provenance
Margarete and Heinz Schultz, 1948;
Caroline and Stephen Adler, 1954
group exhibitions
Pierpont Morgan Library, New York,
1999, cat. no. 132, color illus. p. 295.
comments
The title of this work refers to the
letters ete in the upper right of this
composition; été is the French word
for summer. The painted yellow ochre
vertical rectangle on the right side is
a piece of cut paper.
co lla ges
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