Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 598
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[ Green Open with Phoenician
Letters]
Untitled
Elegy Drawing No. 28
Untitled
1976
Acrylic and ink on paper
9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
1976
Acrylic and graphite on paper
8¾ x 11¾ in. (22.2 x 29.8 cm)
Acrylic and graphite on paper
5⅜ x 8¾ in. (13.7 x 22.2 cm), irreg.
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: Aug 10
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: RM 76
Recto, upper right: RM 76
artist’s studio number
d76-1060
1976
Acrylic, ink, and graphite on paper
9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right: Motherwell
10 Aug 76
artist’s studio number
d76-2442
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
comments
The composition of this work probably
served as a model for the large-scale
1977 painting Phoenician Red Studio,
in which Motherwell related similar
charcoal forms to letters from
the Phoenician alphabet (see the
Comments for p924).
586
artist’s studio number
d76-1317
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
solo exhibitions
Marisa del Re Gallery, New York,
February 1989.
paintings on pa p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
present owner
Unknown
provenance
Unknown owner, ca. 1981; [Sotheby
Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, June 27,
1990, lot 16, illus.]; unknown owner, 1990
solo exhibitions
Long Point Gallery, Provincetown,
Mass., August 1978, cat. no. 13, as
Untitled.
Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, 1979,
cat. no. 93, illus. n.p. (in exhibition), as
Untitled.
comments
This work was exhibited as Untitled in
1978 and 1979. Motherwell assigned its
present title around 1981.
inscriptions
Recto, upper left: Motherwell
18 Aug 76
present owner
Collection of Marley Rabstenek and
Richard Austin
provenance
Burt Britton, 1976; [Bloomsbury
Auctions, New York, September 24,
2009, lot 25, illus.]; Marley Rabstenek
and Richard Austin, 2009
comments
This work was done at the request of
Burt Britton of the Strand Book Store
in New York, who asked many writers
and artists for self-portrait drawings,
either to be done on the spot or sent to
him later. Motherwell offered this work,
a fragment of what had once been a
larger sheet of rectangular paper, as a
rare instance of self-portraiture.
