Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 90
(cat. no. 74, pl. 102); Pleynet 1989b,
p. 25, color illus. p. 104; Flam 1991,
color illus. n.p. (pl. 47); Kramer
1991d, p. 33, illus. p. 33; Caws 1996b,
illus. p. 132; Chalumeau 1998, color
illus. p. 19 (pl. 13); Caws 2003, illus.
p. 56 (ill. 40); Engberg and Banach
2003, p. 46, illus. p. 47 (fig. 23).
comments
This work is one of three “N.R.F.”
collages Motherwell composed during
the spring of 1960 in which he used
the wrapping paper from a mailed copy
of the French periodical La Nouvelle
Revue française (N.R.F.), published by
Gallimard in Paris. The paper was given
to him by his friend, the writer B. H.
Friedman, to whom one of the collages
is dedicated. Postmarks on the paper
indicate that it was mailed from Paris
on March 12, 1960, and arrived in New
York on March 16.
An early state of this collage
appears in a studio photograph taken
after mid-March 1960 (see fig. 101 in
volume 1), where it is oriented as a vertical work; but it is signed “RM 60” on
what is now the lower left side, oriented
in a direction that indicates that it was
originally conceived as a horizontal
work. (Shortly afterward, the collage
was also photographed alone as a
horizontal work; Juley photo no. 271;
j0005055.) The early signature was later
painted over in black when the work
was revised. The 1959 date that is incised
into what is now its upper left corner
refers to when Motherwell started the
work (before he had the N.R.F. paper),
not when he completed it.
The numbering of the first two
N.R.F. collages (see also c105) was
originally reversed. This work, now
number 1 in the series, was originally
designated as number 2 when it was
first exhibited at the Sidney Janis
Gallery in April 1961. The present
numbering of the works was established
in July 1961, in an effort to align the
numbers with the 1959 and 1960 dates
inscribed on them (per correspondence
between Motherwell and the Whitney
Museum of American Art, Dedalus
Foundation Archives). In fact both collages were created contemporaneously,
although number 2 was completed first,
as studio photographs attest, and as the
original numbering sequence indicated.
In a questionnaire for the Whitney
Museum of American Art, dated
April 13, 1961, Motherwell wrote that
78
collages
Friedman had given him the N.R.F.
paper because he knew of his “admiration for Gallimard, publisher of Proust,
Gide, Valéry, Breton, Michaux,
Paulhan, Malraux, Camus et. al., men
who have deeply affected me at one
time or another (along with many other
items of the World’s literature). The
‘N.R.F. Collage No. 1’ [now No. 2],
a companion work, is subtitled ‘(For
B. H. Friedman).’ . . . ‘No. 2’ [now
No. 1] has plastic affinities with my
‘Spanish Elegies,’ but is a further development. The somber quality is characteristic of my work made in New York;
most of my ‘lighter’ work was made
after trips to, or in Mexico + Europe, or
in the summertime” (see “Writings by
the Artist,” in Bibliography). Although
Motherwell notes that the subtitle of
c105 was “For B. H. Friedman,” that
subtitle never was officially given to it.
In 1973, Motherwell used a remaining piece of the same wrapping paper to
create N.R.F. Collage No. 4 (c384).
N.R.F. Collage No. 2
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
January 1965 (circulating), New York,
cat. no. 41.
Alternative Title: N.R.F. Collage No. 1
1960
Oil and pasted papers on paper
28¼ x 21½ in. (71.8 x 54.6 cm)
Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York, 1974.
c105
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: RM 60
artist’s studio number
c60-5093
present owner
Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York. Purchase, with funds from
the Friends of the Whitney Museum of
American Art
provenance
Whitney Museum of American Art,
1961
solo exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April
1961, cat. no. 20, illus. n.p. (in studio,
in progress), as N.R.F. Collage, No. 1.
Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo,
Brazil, 1961, cat. no. 32, illus. n.p.
Pasadena Art Museum, Calif.,
February 1962, cat. no. 45.
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Robert Motherwell, September 1965
(traveling), New York, cat. no. 51, color
illus. p. 64; Amsterdam, cat. no. 46,
illus. n.p.; Essen, cat. no. 46; Turin, cat.
no. 46, color illus. p. 95 (pl. 35).
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
November 1972 (traveling), cat. no. 20,
illus. p. 68.
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City,
1975, cat. no. 17, color illus. n.p.
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1976
(traveling), cat. no. 24, color illus. p. 63,
illus. p. 103.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 1977, cover color illus., color illus.
n.p.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1983 (traveling), cat. no. 38, color illus.
p. 44.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1984, cat. no. 35.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1985
(traveling), cat. no. 73.
group exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York, 1962, illus. n.p.
Miami-Dade Community College, Fla.,
1976.
Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York,
1977, cat. no. 122, illus. n.p.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, March 1988, cat. no. 93.
Lowe Art Museum, University of
Miami, Coral Gables, Fla., 1989
(traveling).
references
Pavia and Sandler 1960, illus. p. 2,
as N.R.F. Collage #1; New York Times
1961, illus. sec. 2, p. 13; Rosenberg
1961, illus. p. 22 (in exhibition);
Charmet 1965, p. 168; Museum of
Modern Art, Robert Motherwell, exh. cat.
September 1965, cover illus. (in studio,
in progress); Newsweek 1965, illus.
p. 98; Vogue 1965, illus. p. 141 (cat.
no. 6, in exhibition); Arnason 1966b,
p. 32; Robertson 1966a, illus. p. 89;
Galerie im Erker exh. cat. 1971, illus.
p. 11 (in studio, in progress); Apollo
1972, illus. p. 450 (fig. 6); Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, Bulletin 1972,
p. 89; Kramer 1974b, illus. p. 27, as
N.R.F. Collage Number 1; Acha 1975,
illus. p. 81; O’Hara 1975, p. 65; Pleynet
1975, illus. p. 6; Meister 1976b, illus.;
Schmidt 1976, illus. p. 77 (in studio, in
progress); Arnason 1977b, p. 53, illus.
n.p. (pls. 119, in studio, in progress,
121); Lit Tout 1977, illus.; Motherwell
in Arnason 1977b, n.p.; Arnason 1982,
pp. 11, 53, illus. p. 138 (pl. 156, in
studio), color illus. p. 140 (pl. 158);
Motherwell in Arnason 1982, pp. 139,
140; Ashton 1983, p. 43, color illus.
p. 44; Pleynet 1989b, p. 25, color illus.
p. 105; Flam 1991, color illus. n.p.
(pl. 48); Seidel 1991, illus. p. 14; Van
Siclen 1991, color illus. sec. D, p. 1;
Martin et al. 1992, illus. p. 569
(pl. 605); Terenzio 1992b, color illus.
n.p.; Kaiser 1995, p. 120, illus. n.p.;
Caws 1996b, p. 120, illus. p. 122, color
illus. n.p.; Chalumeau 1998, color illus.
p. 18 (pl. 12); Gilbert 1998, p. 289,
illus. p. 552 (fig. 37); Pleynet 1998, illus.
p. 86; Venn and Weinberg 1998, color
illus. p. 140; Thierolf 2002, p. 330, illus.
p. 330 (fig. 1); Caws 2003, illus. p. 169
(ill. 120); Mattison et al. 2009, color
illus. p. 150.
