Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 587
w467
w468
Elegy to the Spanish Republic
1975
Acrylic and graphite on paper
10 x 14½ in. (25.4 x 36.8 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: R. Motherwell
comments
This small painting on paper is based
on At Five in the Afternoon of 1948–49
(w10), the composition of which
Motherwell had revisited in 1971 in a
large-scale version on canvas (see the
Comments for p647).
w468
w469
w469
Gesture Paper Painting No. 1
1975
Acrylic on paper
26½ x 20½ in. (67.3 x 52.1 cm), irreg.
inscriptions
Recto, lower left: Motherwell 75 8
artist’s studio number
d65/75-511
present owner
Collection of Steve and Carla Schwartz
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Gertrude Kasle, 1975; [Christie’s,
New York, November 19, 1992, lot 286,
illus.]; Steve and Carla Schwartz, 1992
provenance
Private collection, 1981
solo exhibitions
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City,
1975, cat. no. 40, as Elegía a la
República Española (estudio) (Elegy to
the Spanish Republic [study]).
Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, 1979,
cat. no. 75, illus. n.p.; illus. n.p. (in
exhibition).
references
Kramer 1977a, color illus. p. 17 (in
studio).
solo exhibitions
Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit, 1975,
cat. no. 4.
references
Miro 1975, illus. sec. D, p. 4 (upside
down).
of this series was inconsistent—there
are several gaps between numbers, and
the numbers 10 and 12 were assigned
twice. Many of the works include small
numerical markings in pencil on the
recto that do not correspond with their
given series number as documented
in Motherwell’s studio records. Those
numbers may originally have been
intended to indicate the order in which
the works in the series were completed;
but that order was not retained when
the artist assigned official titles to the
works in the series.
Several similar gestural paintings
on paper done in 1975 also bear
penciled numbers but were not given
titles or numbers in the Gesture Paper
Painting series (see w484–w502).
comments
In 1975 Motherwell did a number
of small works on sheets of unevenly
shaped paper handmade by Tyler
Graphics Ltd. Some of these works
were grouped together as the Gesture
Paper Painting series. The numbering
p a i n tin gs on paper and paperbo ard
575
