Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 441
w50
w49
comments
Shortly after Motherwell arrived in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz on June 22, 1958,
he initiated an extended series of small
paintings titled Frontier. In them, he
used a glossy black alkyd paint that he
found locally and which produced a
distinctive contrast between the black
calligraphic forms and the matte white
ground. Regarding the second numbered work in this series (see w50), and
the series in general, Motherwell would
later state: “This was painted in France,
in St. Jean-de-Luz near the Spanish
frontier, and represents to me release
after a long time of sterility; crossing
the frontier, so to speak. About twenty
in the series” (Motherwell in Smith
College exh. cat. 1963, caption for w50).
The numbering of the series would
reach only as high as number 12 and no
work in it was assigned the number 11.
w50
Frontier No. 2
1958
Oil and alkyd on paperboard
14¾ x 18 in. (37.5 x 45.7 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
artist’s studio number
p58-30
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, March
1959, cat. no. 42.
Smith College Museum of Art,
Northampton, Mass., 1963, cat. no. 9,
illus. n.p.
William Benton Museum of Art,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1979,
cat. no. 9 (brochure); cat. no. 10
(catalogue).
w51
Galerie Bernd Klüser, Munich, May
2005, cat. no. 8.
w51
Galerie Lelong, Paris, 2007.
1958
Oil and alkyd on paperboard
15 x 18 in. (38.1 x 45.7 cm)
references
Ashton 1959a, illus. p. 6; O’Brien 1962,
illus. sec. Magazine, pt. 1, p. 52 (installation view); Motherwell in Smith
College Museum of Art exh. cat. 1963,
n.p.; Arnason 1977b, illus. n.p. (pl. 106);
Arnason 1982, p. 49, illus. p. 133
(pl. 146); Pleynet 1989b, color illus.
p. 100; Poesia y Poética 1990, illus. p. 2.
comments
Motherwell painted this work in SaintJean-de-Luz during the summer of
1958. For his remarks on this work and
on his Frontier series as a whole, see
the Comments for Frontier No. 1 (w49).
Frontier No. 3
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Felix Handschin Galerie; unknown
owner
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, March
1959, cat. no. [43 or 47].
comments
Motherwell painted this work in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz during the summer
of 1958. It is one of two unidentified
works (see also w58) visible in photographs of his March 1959 solo exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery, which
were given the titles Frontier No. 3 and
Frontier No. 10 on the exhibition checklist; but it is uncertain which work corresponds to which title.
p a i n tin gs on paper and paperbo ard
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