Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 534
w284
comments
This painting is the earliest numbered
work in Motherwell’s Black on White
series; no work was assigned the number 1. The works in this series were
closely related to his Open series, and
one work, number 4 in the series, was
first published in 1969 under the title
Open: Black and White Series No. 18 (see
the Comments for w285). By the spring
of 1970, however, when a number of
these works were exhibited for the first
time, the first three numbered works
in the series had been assigned their
definitive titles.
w284
w285
Black on White No. 3
Black on White No. 4
1968
Acrylic and graphite on paper
6 x 8 in. (15.2 x 20.3 cm)
Alternative Title: Open: Black and White
Series No. 18
1968
Acrylic and graphite on paper
6 x 8 in. (15.2 x 20.3 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: RM 68
present owner
Brooklyn Museum. Gift of Mr. and
Mrs. Alexander Liberman, 1991.277
provenance
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Liberman;
Brooklyn Museum, 1991
solo exhibitions
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,
1970 (traveling), cat. no. 6.
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: RM 68
present owner
Helen Frankenthaler
provenance
Helen Frankenthaler, ca. 1968
solo exhibitions
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,
1970 (traveling), cat. no. 7.
references
Andreae 1969, illus. p. 8, as Open Black
and White Series No. 18; MarlboroughGerson Gallery exh. cat. 1969, illus.
n.p., as ‘Open’ Black and White Series
No. 18.
522
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
comments
This work was first published as ‘Open’
Black and White Series No. 18 in the catalogue for Motherwell’s first exhibition
of his Open series (see MarlboroughGerson Gallery exh. cat. 1969). The
number 18 was likely related at that
time to the numbering of his Open
studies. By the spring of 1970, however,
when this piece appeared in a traveling
solo exhibition originating at the
University of Wisconsin, Motherwell
had retitled it Black on White No. 4; two
other works from this series, Black on
White No. 2 and No. 3 (w283 and
w284), also appeared in that exhibition.
