Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 504
w188
w189
w188
w189
The Figure No. 4
Anchor No. 1
1963
Oil on paper
28⅞ x 22⅞ in. (73.3 x 58.1 cm)
1963
Oil on paper mounted on panel
29 x 23 in. (73.7 x 58.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: RM 63
inscriptions
Recto, lower left, incised and inscribed:
RM 63
Verso (on backing board): Robert
Motherwell 29 x 23" 1963 “the
figure #4” oil
w190
(p271), and in another large unfinished
painting on canvas (p272). Motherwell
later referred to a variation of this motif
as a “primal sign”; see Primal Sign
(p1108). Within the Anchor series there
are only two numbered works, Anchor
No. 1 and No. 3 (w190).
w191
w190
Anchor No. 3
1963
Oil on paper mounted on panel
29 x 23 in. (73.7 x 58.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right, incised and
inscribed: Motherwell 63
Verso: “anchor, #1” Robert
Motherwell 1963 oil on board
Verso: “anchor, #3” Robert
Motherwell 1963 oil on board
present owner
Collection of Mimi Fullerton, Toronto
present owner
Unknown
artist’s studio number
d63-373
provenance
Private collection, 1965; Mimi
Fullerton, Toronto, ca. 1970
provenance
Private collection, 1967; [Sotheby’s,
New York, May 16, 2007, lot 119, illus.];
unknown owner, 2007
present owner
Private collection
comments
The title of this painting refers to the
blue figure 4 and is not meant to connote a series. Regarding Motherwell’s
use of the figure 4 in his works, see
the Comments for The Figure 4 on an
Elegy (w104).
492
comments
The anchorlike form in this work has
clear precedents in Motherwell’s use of
the figure 4 in his paintings (see w104),
and was used in a number of paintings
on paper done around this time (see
w190–w194). It was also used in
Motherwell’s large-scale 1963–64 painting Dublin 1916, with Black and Tan
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; private
collection, 2007
solo exhibitions
Galleria d’Arte il Gabbiano, Rome,
2008, cat. no. 3, color illus. p. 11.
group exhibitions
J. L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, 1966.
Montclair Art Museum, N.J., 1970.
