Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 465
The Black Sun
group exhibitions
Long Point Gallery, Provincetown,
Mass., June 1991.
1959–60
Oil on paper mounted on paperboard
28¾ x 22¾ in. (73 x 57.8 cm)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2005.
w101
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: R Motherwell 59
artist’s studio number
d59-345
present owner
Collection Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis. Gift of Margaret and
Angus Wurtele and the Dedalus
Foundation, 1995
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis, 1995
solo exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 43, illus.
p. 30; Amsterdam, cat. no. 38, illus.
n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 38; Turin, cat.
no. 38, illus. p. 92 (pl. 32).
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 13; Caracas, cat. no. 68; Bogotá,
cat. no. 68; Mexico City, cat. no. 13.
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City,
1975, cat. no. 15.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1978,
cat. no. 10, illus. p. 15.
William Benton Museum of Art,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1979,
cat. no. 14 (brochure); cat. no. 16
(catalogue), illus. p. 135.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 32, illus. p. 76;
not shown in Seattle.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1984, cat. no. 29.
references
Arnason 1966b, pp. 32, 37, illus. p. 41;
Arnason 1977b, pp. 53, 54, 64, illus.
p. 55 (pl. 32); Spurling 1978, p. 230;
Terenzio 1979, illus. p. 11; Arnason
1982, pp. 53–54, 64, illus. p. 55 (pl. 48);
Ashton 1983, p. 41, illus. p. 76; Gaugh
1985, p. 72; Pleynet 1989b, p. 44, color
illus. p. 102; Forman 1991d, sec. C, p. 1;
Caws 1996b, p. 71, illus. p. 49; Walker
Art Center Annual Report 1996, illus.
p. 4; Caws 2003, p. 109, illus. p. 110 (ill.
71); Marlan 2005, illus. p. 85 (fig. 3.7).
comments
Motherwell began this work in 1959. An
early version of it, oriented horizontally,
appears in a spring 1960 photograph
of his studio (Juley photo no. 260;
j0005044). Sometime in 1960,
Motherwell oriented the picture vertically, and added more black paint to
the central form, extending it to the
right edge of the composition. He also
painted out with white many of the
black drips from the previous version
of the work and signed it in the lower
left with the date 1959, the year it
was begun.
The title refers to a line in
Baudelaire’s prose poem “Le Désir de
peindre” (The Desire to Paint), from
Spleen de Paris (Paris Spleen). In it, the
poet, speaking of an enigmatic woman,
writes: “Je la compararerais à un soleil
noir, si l’on pouvait concevoir un astre
noir versant la lumière et le bonheur”
(I would compare her to a black sun, if
one could conceive of such a star pouring forth light and happiness).
w102
w102
Untitled
Alternative Title: [Untitled (Spill)]
1960
Oil and ink on paper
12½ x 9½ in. (31.8 x 24.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: RM 1960
artist’s studio number
d60-2858
present owner
Private collection, New York
Long Point Gallery, Provincetown,
Mass., August 1991.
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; private
collection, New York, 2006
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1996,
cat. no. 25, color illus. n.p.
solo exhibitions
Marisa del Re Gallery, New York, 1990.
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona,
1996 (traveling), cat. no. 30, color illus.
p. 131.
Marlborough Gallery, New York, 2002,
as Untitled (Spill).
Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño,
Mexico City, 2008, color illus. p. 47.
comments
This work originally contained collage
elements, traces of which can still be
seen on the surface.
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art,
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.,
2009, cat. no. 13.
p a i n tin gs on paper and paperbo ard
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