Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 434
w32
w33
w32
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w34
Elegy to the Spanish Republic
No. 50
Untitled
Two Figures No. 5
1958
Oil and charcoal on paper
11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
1958
Oil on paperboard
7½ x 9½ in. (19.1 x 24.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
Verso: For Harold Rosenberg on his
birthday Robert Motherwell 1958
present owner
Collection of Diane Englander and
Mark Underberg
1958
Oil and ink on paperboard
8½ x 10½ in. (21.6 x 26.7 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
present owner
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley K.
Sheinbaum
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Mr. and Mrs. Milton Sperling, 1959;
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley K. Sheinbaum
provenance
Harold Rosenberg, 1958; private collection, 1989
references
Arnason 1966b, p. 29, illus. p. 22;
Hobbs 1975b, p. 246, illus. n.p. (pl. 33);
Arnason 1977b, p. 46.
comments
Motherwell’s dedication on the verso
of this work is to the critic Harold
Rosenberg, who was born on February
2, 1906.
comments
As evidenced in this work and other
Elegy paintings from this period, the
numbering of the Elegy paintings on
paper was not chronologically sequential. See, for example, the Elegies given
the numbers 40, 44, and 45 (w25,
w108, and w109 respectively).
422
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
provenance
Private collection, 1959; Diane
Englander and Mark Underberg
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, March
1959, cat. no. 59.
comments
Motherwell painted this work in SaintJean-de-Luz, France, where he and
Helen Frankenthaler arrived on June
22, 1958. In the following entries, we
note which works Motherwell executed
in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
This is the first painting on paper
that was given a number in the Two
Figures series, which Motherwell began
with paintings on canvas prior to his
European trip, notably The Wedding
(p172), which—like works in the Two
Figures series proper—Motherwell
associated with images of himself and
Helen Frankenthaler (interview with
Rudi Blesh, 1961; see “Writings by the
Artist,” in the Bibliography). The works
painted in France are notably looser
and more gestural than those done previously in New York (see p171–p175,
and w35–w42).
See also the Comments for Two
Figures No. 2 (p174).
