Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 451
w71
March 1959 (see fig. 78 in volume 1).
Around 1961, he extended the black
paint on the right side to the edges
and retitled the work Iberia No. 17.
Two other paintings originally in the
Bull series were retitled as Iberia paintings around the same time (see w68
and w69).
w71
Painting
1958
Oil and shellac on paperboard
11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM
w72
a number of works on paper and
paperboard he used shellac as a painting medium (see p178, w72, w77–w83),
and he also worked with a commercial
alkyd enamel, notably in the Frontier
series (w49–w59).
Our reproduction comes from the
1990 Christie’s auction catalogue.
w72
The Blackness of Black
1958
Oil and shellac on paperboard
11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: RM
Recto, upper right [painted over]:
[RM 58]
present owner
Private collection
Recto, lower right, incised (oriented
vertically): RM 58
provenance
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick R. Weisman,
Beverly Hills, Calif., 1959; private collection; [Christie’s, New York, May 4,
1994, lot 111, illus.]; private collection,
1994
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Carlo and Janet Grossman, ca. 1960;
[Christie’s, New York, November 8,
1990, lot 315, illus.]; unknown owner,
1990
comments
Motherwell painted this work in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz during the summer
of 1958. At that time, because some
of the paints he habitually used were
not available, he tried some different
painting mediums. For example, in
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, March
1959, cat. no. 68.
Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, 1974,
cat. no. 18, illus. n.p.
group exhibitions
Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, 1960.
references
Arnason 1977b, illus. n.p. (pls. 97, in
studio, 114); Arnason 1982, illus. p. 137
p a i n tin gs on paper and paperbo ard
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