Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 68
c68
mounted on a wider board, for reasons
having to do with framing. Around
1965 Motherwell reworked the collage
by painting the border with a siennacolored paint and signed it at the upper
right, incorporating the border into
the work. A similar change was made
around the same time to Fockink No. 1
(c75).
An early state of this collage,
signed “Robert Motherwell 1956” on a
now-removed collage element that was
at the upper right, was published and
exhibited as Collage at the Sidney Janis
Gallery in 1957 (Juley photo no. 15;
j0004812); the work was given its
present title later that year. The small
piece of torn paper near the upper center, with the printed words “L’aventure
de l’art abstrait” (The adventure of
abstract art), refers to the title of a
56
collages
1956 book by the French critic Michel
Ragon. A partially overlapped piece of
yellow paper at the lower center features the handwritten phrase “Jour la
maison nuit la rue,” taken from a poem
by Paul Eluard, which was incorporated
into other works of this period (see
p164 and c66).
c68
The End of Dover Beach
Alternative Title: Dover Beach
1952/1957
Tempera, pasted papers, crayon, and
graphite on board
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower center (on collage element): R. Motherwell 57
solo exhibitions
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York,
April 1953 (shown in early state), as
Dover Beach.
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York,
May 1957, cat. no. 12.
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.,
1965, cat. no. 4.
artist’s studio number
c52-5038
group exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York, October 1953, cat. no. 94
(shown in early state), as Dover Beach.
present owner
Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, Phoenix,
Md.
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.,
1954 (shown in early state), as Dover
Beach.
provenance
Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, Phoenix,
Md., 1959
Detroit Institute of Arts, 1954, cat.
no. 22 (shown in early state), as Dover
Beach.
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1958,
cat. no. 311, illus. n.p. (pl. 23).
