Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 81
c89
Greek Collage
1959
Oil, pasted papers, and graphite on
paperboard
24 x 23 in. (61 x 58.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, lower right (oriented vertically):
R. Motherwell 1959
c89
Galleria Odyssia, Rome, 1962, cat. no. 9.
Galerie der Spiegel, Cologne, Germany,
1962, cat. no. [6].
Verso (oriented vertically): this
collage is signed on the side, not
the bottom Robert Motherwell
New Gallery, Charles Hayden Memorial
Library, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, 1963.
artist’s studio number
c59-339
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965 (traveling), New York, cat. no. 44; Amsterdam,
cat. no. 39, illus. n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 39;
Turin, cat. no. 39, illus. p. 94 (pl. 34/B).
present owner
Pinakothek der Moderne. Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, inv. nr.
14755
provenance
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich,
1982
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 24.
Galerie Heinz Berggruen, Paris, 1961,
color illus. n.p.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1967 (circulating), Buenos Aires, cat.
no. 14; Caracas, cat. no. 69; Bogotá,
cat. no. 69; Mexico City, cat. no. 14.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
November 1972 (traveling), cat. no. 17,
illus. p. 65.
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen,
Germany, 2004, color illus. p. 39.
references
Vogue 1965, illus. p. 141 (cat. no. 6,
in exhibition); Arnason 1966b, p. 32;
Arnason 1977b, p. 53, illus. p. 53 (pl. 28);
Arnason 1982, p. 53, illus. p. 53 (pl. 46);
Stabenow 1983, p. 82; Drudi 1984, illus.
p. 105 (in studio), illus. p. 107 (in studio); Drudi 1988b, illus. p. 111 (in studio), illus. p. 113 (in studio); Flam 1991,
color illus. n.p. (pl. 44); Pleynet 1991,
p. 13; Pleynet 1998, p. 88; Thierolf 2002,
pp. 28, 278–83, color illus. p. 279 (cat.
no. 23), color illus. p. 280.
comments
Motherwell’s inscription on the verso
of this work regarding the position of
the signature indicates that an early state
may have been oriented with what is
now the right edge positioned at the top.
This collage introduces a new motif
in Motherwell’s collages of the period:
the large piece of pasted white paper
is torn inward, up from the bottom
edge, but the torn strip is not removed,
so as to create four slightly overlapping
strips that remain attached to the
whole. This kind of internal tearing
within a large piece of pasted paper will
appear in several other collages from
this period (see, for example, c90, c93,
c100, c117, and c137). It would also
influence the forms of other works (see
c141, c142, c144–c146, and c148). To
Motherwell, the tearing in this collage
element was suggestive of a torso
and Greek tunic: “Subtle reference to
Greek Marble torso—or not so subtle!”
(unpublished annotations to exhibition
catalogue text for Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, 1972; see “Writings
by the Artist,” in the Bibliography).
co lla ges
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