Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 83
c92
c92
Canadian Collage, with Sea
Lion Sardines
1959
Paint and pasted papers on board
30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
Verso (on backing board): “canadian
collage, with ‘sea lion’ sardines”
1959 Robert Motherwell
Verso (on label attached to the backing
board): acrylic enamel rm 1959
comments
One of the pasted papers in this collage
is a label from a package of Sea Lion
sardines, a Canadian brand. We do not
know exactly what medium Motherwell
was referring to when he inscribed
the words acrylic enamel on the verso;
this medium is unknown to the conservation scientists we have consulted.
Moreover, when the work was shown at
the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1961, the
medium was listed as “Oil and
Collage.”
c93
c93
Sea Lion
1959
Oil, pasted paper, pasted cardboard,
and graphite on paper
22⅜ x 28⅜ in. (56.8 x 72.1 cm)
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 59
artist’s studio number
c59-526
present owner
Susan and John B. Hess
present owner
Private collection
provenance
Dedalus Foundation, 1991; Susan and
John B. Hess, 2004
provenance
Mr. and Mrs. James Roemer, 1961;
private collection, 1995
solo exhibitions
Galleria Odyssia, Rome, 1962, cat.
no. 15, erroneously as Sea Lion No. 2.
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 26.
group exhibitions
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2005,
color illus. p. 180.
Galerie Heinz Berggruen, Paris, 1961,
illus. n.p.
comments
The title of this work is taken from the
torn corrugated cardboard box for
Sea Lion brand sardines at the center
Galleria Odyssia, Rome, 1962, cat.
no. 27.
of the composition. A piece of paper
with torn, overlapping edges that are
similar to those in other works from
this period is pasted on top of the cardboard (see c89 and c117). An early
state of this work (Juley photo no. 118;
j0004910) featured a fragment of a
Craven “A” brand cigarette wrapper in
the upper right of the torn white paper,
which Motherwell subsequently
removed.
co lla ges
71
