Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 79
c85
references
Sidney Janis Gallery exh. cat. April
1961, illus. n.p. (in exhibition).
comments
This collage was created in Saint-Jeande-Luz during the summer of 1958.
c85
Handle with Care
1958
Oil and pasted papers on board
20 x 15 in. (50.8 x 38.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right, incised (on collage
element): RM
present owner
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lubin, Boston
provenance
Martin Janis Gallery, 1962; private
collection; Duncan MacGuigan, 1984;
[Christie’s, New York, May 10, 2006,
lot 114, illus.]; Mr. and Mrs. Richard
Lubin, Boston, 2006
comments
The title of this collage is derived from
a packing label that reads “handle
with care glass,” pasted upside
down in the upper half. The work also
includes a U.S. Customs baggage
inspection ticket and a label for Callard
& Bowser’s Old English Treacle Brittle;
in the latter label, Motherwell has
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painted out some of the text, but left
the word Brittle, setting up a complex
network of puns with the terms “handle
with care,” “glass,” and “inspected
baggage.”
c86
Collage Torn Out of Black
1958
Oil and pasted papers on paper
20 x 15 in. (50.8 x 38.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right, incised: RM
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York; William
J. Casey, 1959; Everett Ellin Gallery,
1963; Harris B. Steinberg, New York;
[Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York,
March 4, 1970, lot 68, illus.]; private
collection, 1970
group exhibitions
Baltimore Museum of Art, February
1959, cat. no. 3, illus. n.p.
Baltimore Museum of Art, July 1959,
as Torn Out of Black.
Horace Mann School, Riverdale, N.Y.,
1962, cat. no. 13.
co lla ges
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