Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 600
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Totemic Emblem
1976
Acrylic and graphite on paperboard
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
comments
This painting was done on a backing
board previously used for a 1967 work.
The recto signature with its 1967 date
refers to the earlier composition.
InscrIptIons
Recto, lower center: R Motherwell
1967 acrylic on canvas
artIst’s studIo number
p67-1232
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
solo exhIbItIons
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977.
Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery,
Columbia University, New York, 1997
(traveling), cat. no. VIII.1, illus. p. 150
(pl. 79).
588
paintings on p a p e r an d p a p e r b o a r d
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Emblematic Presence III
Alternative Title: Figaro in the Cemetery
1976
Oil and acrylic on paperboard
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
InscrIptIons
Recto, upper right: Motherwell
6 Aug 76
Verso (on top horizontal strainer):
“emblematIc presence III” rm
artIst’s studIo number
p76-1324; p76-2229
present owner
Dedalus Foundation
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991
solo exhIbItIons
William Benton Museum of Art,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1979,
cat. no. 89 (catalogue), illus. p. 48 (in
exhibition), as Figaro in the Cemetery.
comments
Motherwell painted a work titled
Emblematic Presence (p904) in 1976,
but there is no work titled Emblematic
Presence II. The early title, Figaro in the
Cemetery, may be a reference to an 1836
essay by the Spanish writer Mariano
José de Larra (1809–1837) entitled “El
Dia de Difuntos de 1836: Figaro en el
cemeterio.”
