Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 466
Pasadena Art Museum, Calif.,
February 1962, cat. no. 46, illus. n.p.
(fig. 42); Anfam 2002, p. 169; Mattison
et al. 2009, p. 61, color illus. p. 60.
Smith College Museum of Art,
Northampton, Mass., 1963, cat. no. 17.
comments
This work embodies one of Motherwell’s
ideals, that of spontaneous gestural
freedom—both in the black forms and
in the dynamic rendering of the figure
4. He had used the figure 4 in his works
from very early in his career—initially
perhaps as a reference to the four members of his family. He was acutely aware
of the broad symbolic significance of
the number 4, which was traditionally
associated with the four elements, the
four seasons, the four humors, the four
corners of the earth, and so forth. The
number is also linked to Carl Gustav
Jung’s notion of quaternity, the fourfold
nature of the psyche and its relationship to mandalas and to the notion of
“squaring the circle.” Motherwell, however, was not particularly forthcoming
about the subject, and wrote: “The figure 4, which appears as early as 1942—
i.e., during the first several years of my
painting—has baffled curious iconographers. There is a long discussion of 4’s
significance by Jung, but whether his
notions are relevant to me or not, I do
not know” (Motherwell in Arnason
1982, p. 142).
Motherwell told E. A. Carmean Jr.
that this painting on paper inspired
the spontaneity and use of expressive
sprays of paint in Elegy to the Spanish
Republic No. 70 (p220) (see Carmean
1978, pp. 111–13).
Motherwell gave this work to H. H.
Arnason who was working on a series of
articles about his art.
New Gallery, Charles Hayden Memorial
Library, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, 1963.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 48, illus.
p. 31; Amsterdam, cat. no. 43, illus.
n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 43; Turin, cat.
no. 43, illus. p. 91 (pl. 31/B).
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf,
1976 (traveling), cat. no. 28, illus. p. 27,
color illus. p. 65, illus. p. 103.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977, color illus. n.p.
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh,
1977.
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1978,
cat. no. 11, illus. p. 15.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 36, color illus.
p. 78; shown in Buffalo and Los
Angeles only.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1984, cat. no. 33.
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Striped Above
The Figure 4 on an Elegy
1960
Oil on paper
30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm)
1960
Oil on paper mounted on Masonite
22¾ x 28¾ in. (57.8 x 73 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: R Motherwell 1960
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: RM 60
present owner
Private collection
artist’s studio number
p60-5106
provenance
Mr. and Mrs. James Roemer, 1961;
private collection, 1995
present owner
Ellen and Howard C. Katz, New York.
Courtesy of Neal Meltzer Fine Art,
New York
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 7, illus. n.p.
provenance
H. Harvard Arnason, before 1965; Jon
Yard Arnason and Eleanor A. Arnason,
1986; [Christie’s, New York, November
14, 2007, lot 121, illus.]; Ellen and
Howard C. Katz, New York, 2007
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 6, illus. n.p.
Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo,
Brazil, 1961, cat. no. 33.
454
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
group exhibitions
National Gallery of Art, Washington,
D.C., 1978, cat. no. 5, color illus.
p. 31 (pl. 14), illus. p. 111 (figs. 11, in
studio, 12).
references
Nordland 1962b, p. 50; Arnason 1966b,
p. 28; Hobbs 1975b, pp. 255, 257, 259–
61, 263, illus. n.p. (pl. 38); Catoir
1976a, illus. p. 23; Granath 1976, illus.
p. 4; Hobbs 1976a, pp. 30–34, illus.
p. 27; Hobbs 1976b, p. 47; Trappschuh
1976, p. 19; Arnason 1977b, pp. 34, 56,
64, illus. n.p. (pl. 125, in studio), color
illus. n.p. (pl. 126); Motherwell in
Arnason 1977b, n.p.; Pleynet 1977,
p. 198; Carmean 1978, pp. 111–12, 113,
116, illus. p. 111 (figs. 11, in studio, 12);
Hernandez 1980, illus. p. 27; Arnason
1982, pp. 34, 56, 64, color illus. p. 143
(pl. 162); Mattison 1982, p. 10;
Motherwell in Arnason 1982, p. 142;
Gelles 1984, p. 37; Pleynet 1986, p. 85;
Pleynet 1989b, pp. 103, 111, color illus.
p. 103; Vinson 1990, p. 969; Flam 1991,
p. 9, color illus. n.p. (pl. 49); Polcari
1991, pp. 317–18, illus. p. 316 (fig. 255);
Franzke 1994, color illus. p. 8 (fig. 6);
Chalumeau 1998, color illus. p. 35
(pl. 32); Wentrup 2001, p. 78, illus.
