Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 468
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In Black and White
Elegy Study
1960
Oil on paper
23¼ x 29 in. (59.1 x 73.7 cm)
Ca. 1960
Oil on paper
22⅞ x 28⅞ in. (58.1 x 73.3 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 60
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
present owner
Unknown
artist’s studio number
d58-524
provenance
Private collection, ca. 1965; Solomon &
Company Fine Art, Inc., ca. 1966;
private collection, ca. 1984; unknown
owner
present owner
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Bequest of Caroline Wiess Law
group exhibitions
Solomon & Company Fine Art, New
York, 1983.
comments
Our reproduction comes from an early
black-and-white photograph of this
work (Juley photo no. 327; j0005050).
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Caroline
Wiess Law, 2001; Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, 2004
group exhibitions
Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, 1999
(traveling), color illus. p. 241.
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn
Harbor, N.Y., 2000, illus. p. 39.
Joseph Helman Gallery, New York,
September 2000.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2004.
456
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
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references
Sidney Janis Gallery exh. cat. April
1961, illus. n.p. (in studio, in progress,
oriented vertically); Museum of
Modern Art, Robert Motherwell, exh.
cat. September 1965, cover illus. (in
studio, in progress, oriented vertically);
Galerie im Erker exh. cat. 1971, illus.
p. 11 (in studio, in progress, oriented
vertically); Schmidt 1976, illus. p. 77 (in
studio, in progress, oriented vertically);
Arnason 1982, illus. p. 138 (pl. 156, in
studio, in progress, oriented vertically).
comments
An earlier version of this work was photographed in the spring of 1960 (Juley
photo no. 277; j0005061), and a print
of this photograph in Motherwell’s possession was labeled “in progress.” That
version is also seen pinned oriented
vertically on Motherwell’s studio wall
in a photograph taken around the same
time (see fig. 101 in volume 1). This
work was completed later in the year,
when Motherwell reoriented it horizontally, redefined the central oval and
vertical forms, and extended the black
paint to the edges of the composition.
