Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 56
c50
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 18, illus.
p. 15; Amsterdam, cat. no. 17, illus. n.p.;
Essen, cat. no. 17; Turin, cat. no. 17,
illus. p. 76 (pl. 16).
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
November 1972 (traveling), cat. no. 10,
color illus. p. 8 (pl. 1), illus. p. 58.
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City,
1975, cat. no. 5, illus. n.p.
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1976
(traveling), cat. no. 10, color illus. p. 61,
illus. p. 100.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977, illus. n.p.
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh,
1977.
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1978,
cat. no. 5, illus. p. 14.
group exhibitions
Duxbury Town Hall, Mass., 1951.
United States Pavilion, Brussels
World’s Fair, 1958 (traveling), Brussels,
cat. no. 141; London, cat. no. 29
(erroneously as Elergy).
44
collages
Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Conn., 1959.
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., 1964, cat. no. 22.
Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Lexington,
1969.
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., 1972, cat. no. 156,
illus. n.p.
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., 1975, cat. no. 28.
Harvard University Art Museums,
Cambridge, Mass., 1985, cat. no. 88,
color illus. p. 93.
Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo,
1999 (traveling), cat. no. 53.
references
Greenberg 1948, p. 613; W[olf] 1948,
p. 19; G. 1949, p. 51; S[harp] 1949,
p. 22, erroneously as Elegy (American
Twentieth Century); Claus 1965, p. 3;
Arnason 1966b, p. 26; Holmes 1972,
illus. sec. 3, p. 8; Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, Bulletin 1972, p. 89; Acha
1975, p. 82; Hobbs 1975b, pp. 139, 210;
Arnason 1977b, pp. 29, 41, 50, 104,
illus. n.p. (pl. 73); Arnason 1982,
pp. 29–30, 41, 50, illus. p. 112 (pl. 124);
Mattison 1985b, pp. 224–25, illus. n.p.
(fig. 204); Greenberg 1986b, p. 241;
Mortimer 1986, p. 204, illus. p. 203
(cat. no. 233); Mattison 1987, pp. 196–
97, illus. p. 193 (fig. 77); Pleynet 1989b,
pp. 30–32, 43, 237, color illus. p. 34;
Flam 1991, color illus. n.p. (pl. 26).
comments
This collage contains the patterned
German wrapping paper that
Motherwell began to use in 1943. This
is the first work to which Motherwell
gave the title Elegy, which would later
become a persistent theme in his paintings. The first time this collage was
exhibited, Clement Greenberg wrote,
“The most surprising advance in the
show is seen in the collages, one of
them Elegy, being the first really successful one by Motherwell that I have
seen” (Greenberg 1948, p. 613).
c50
In Grey and Tan
1948
Oil and pasted papers on composition
board
47 x 39 in. (119.4 x 99.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: Motherwell 48
artist’s studio number
c48-5061
present owner
Krannert Art Museum, University of
Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. Gift of
Albert List
provenance
Vera G. and Albert A. List; Krannert
Art Museum, University of Illinois,
Urbana–Champaign, 1955
solo exhibitions
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York,
May 1948, cat. no. 7, illus. n.p.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
November 1972 (traveling), cat. no. 11,
color illus. p. 23 (pl. 5), illus. p. 59.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1985
(traveling), cat. no. 71.
