Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 510
w206
w206
Spontaneity No. 4
1966
Acrylic on paper
30¾ x 22 in. (78.1 x 55.9 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Reese Palley Gallery, 1968; David
Nisinson, 1969; unknown owner
solo exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 33, as Espontaneidad (Spontaneity);
Caracas, cat. no. 88, as Espontaneidad;
Bogotá, cat. no. 88; Mexico City, cat.
no. 33, as Espontaneidad.
series. It was given the number 4 in that
series because it was done after three
drawings in ink on paper (which are
not included in this volume). This
painting on paper and a large contemporaneous painting on canvas, In Black
and White No. 1 (p358), are closely
related to Motherwell’s 1966 lithograph
Automatism B (Engberg and Banach
2003, no. 20).
Motherwell would develop this
image in a series of large-scale canvases
in 1966–67, including New Amsterdam
Painting and New England Elegy No. 2
and No. 3, two untitled paintings, and
Red, Cut by Black (p365, p368–p372).
group exhibitions
Reese Palley Gallery, San Francisco,
1968.
comments
This work is the first numbered painting on paper in the 1966 Spontaneity
498
paintings on pa p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
w207
w208
w207
w208
Figure 4 with Blue Stripe
The Black X
1966
Acrylic on paper
30½ x 22¼ in. (77.5 x 56.5 cm)
1966
Oil and acrylic on paper
30⅝ x 22¼ in. (77.8 x 56.5 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: RM 1966
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: RM 1966
artist’s studio number
d66-636
Verso [set in triangle]: [#28]
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
solo exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 31; Caracas, cat. no. 86; Bogotá,
cat. no. 86; Mexico City, cat. no. 31.
references
Eagle 1967, color illus. p. 56 (installation view).
comments
Regarding Motherwell’s use of the figure 4 in his works, see the Comments
for The Figure 4 on an Elegy (w104).
present owner
Milwaukee Art Museum. Gift of Mrs.
Harry Lynde Bradley, m1975.149
provenance
Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, 1966;
Milwaukee Art Museum, 1975
group exhibitions
Milwaukee Art Center, 1968, cat.
no. 356, illus. p. 156.
Southeastern Massachusetts University
Gallery, North Dartmouth, 1975, illus.
p. 24.
Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wis.,
1987 (traveling).
Milwaukee Art Museum, 1994 (traveling), cat. no. 14, color illus. p. 12.
