Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 508
w201
w202
w201
w202
w203
Blue Chevron
Automatism No. 1
Spontaneity with Blue Stripe
1965
Acrylic on paperboard
21¾ x 30 in. (55.2 x 76.2 cm)
1965
Acrylic on paperboard
30⅛ x 20⅛ in. (76.5 x 51.1 cm)
1966
Acrylic and ink on paper
30¾ x 22½ in. (78.1 x 57.2 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: RM
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 65
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: RM 1966
artist’s studio number
p65-2672
present owner
Lise Motherwell
present owner
Unknown
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Private collection, 1970; Lise
Motherwell, 1998
provenance
Private collection, 1976; Judith and
Mitchell Kramer, ca. 1979; [Sotheby
Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, October
31, 1984, lot 88, illus.]; unknown owner,
1984
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
comments
In the mid-1960s, Motherwell began
using an angled linear chevron motif in
small paintings on paper, such as this one
and Automatism No. 1 (w202). He eventually incorporated variations of this form
into larger-scale paintings on canvas, most
notably in some of the paintings in his
New England Elegy series and related
works (see, for example, p368–p372). This
motif also appeared in a 1965 painting
titled In Black with Ochre Chevron, which
Motherwell later painted over and retitled
Incline (see the Comments for p1123).
496
solo exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell:Works on Paper,
September 1965 (circulating).
comments
This is the first numbered work in the
1965 Automatism series. It is painted
in acrylic while the other works in this
series are drawings done in gouache
and ink on paper.
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
group exhibitions
Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis,
1968, cat. no. 78.
comments
This work (along with w204–w206) is
part of a large group of automatist
works that includes paintings on canvas
and on paper, as well as drawings and
lithographs, that Motherwell did before
executing his large-scale mural for the
John F. Kennedy Federal Building in
Boston, New England Elegy (p366).
These works include the Lyric Suite
drawings (see, for example, figs. 87 and
88 in volume 1), the 1966 numbered
Spontaneity series of ink drawings, the
1966 In Black and White series of large
paintings (p358–p362), and a pair of
lithographs made in 1966 (Engberg and
Banach 2003, nos. 19 and 20).
Our reproduction comes from the
1984 Sotheby Parke Bernet auction
catalogue.
