N08792

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Lot 109
  • 109

Robert Motherwell

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Robert Motherwell
  • Untitled
  • signed and dated 1958 on the reverse
  • oil and graphite on cardboard
  • 10 1/2 by 13 1/2 in. 26.7 by 34.3 cm.

Provenance

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Gimpel Fils Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Montreal
Sotheby's, New York, May 2, 1985, lot 1
PaineWebber Group Inc., New York (acquired from the above sale)
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Robert Motherwell, March - April 1959, cat. no. 66
London, Gimpel Fils Gallery, Ltd., Collectors' Choice XIV, June 1967, cat. no. 37
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; The Detroit Institute of Art; Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; San Diego Museum of Art; Miami Center for the Arts, Art Works: The PaineWebber Collection of Contemporary Masters, July 1995 - June 1997
New York, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, Alumni Collect: Twentieth-Century Masterpieces from the Collections of Baruch College Alumni, November - December 1997

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling. Otherwise, there are no apparent condition problems with this work. Under ultra violet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Hinged verso to the matte around the edges. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

"If the amounts of black or white are right, they will have condensed into quality, into feeling." -Robert Motherwell, 1950

"To love painting is perhaps irrational to begin with, but I suppose there is something irrational in all love, though I for one delight in it." -Robert Motherwell, lecture with Charles R. Hulbeck (October, 1959)

One of the founders of the Abstract Expressionist movement as well as a prominent writer, Robert Motherwell helped shape the movement and later had the foresight to anticipate the transition away from it. Motherwell defined "abstraction" as a process through which artists found purity in painting, and "expressionism" as "an effort to be truthful about human realities at any cost." As an instructor at the celebrated Black Mountain College, Motherwell could count amongst his students major artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly.  In Untitled, Motherwell put the lessons of Abstract Expressionism into practice to reflect feelings of a joyful reunion.

A trip to Spain in 1958 served as the catalyst for one of the most productive periods in Motherwell's career and a brightening in the artist's paintings. The origin of Untitled can be traced to another work from that year, Motherwell's A Sculptor's Picture, with Blue, a reference to Motherwell's good friend, sculptor David Smith.  With broad and autographic gestures that are reminiscent of the action painting of his peers, Motherwell depicts two sketchy black figures tentatively intersecting, as if capturing the beginning of an embrace. In the following icon-like Two Figures series, of which Untitled is a part, Motherwell executed this theme of encounters with similar calligraphic dynamism. Each of the small paintings sets abstracted pairs on broad and exuberantly painted color fields. Repurposing the black, white, and yellow ochre palette found in Motherwell's Elegies series, Untitled contains the most easily recognizable figures in the Two Figures series with their clearly delineated heads and bodies set off by the milky white ground. Untitled shows Motherwell's confidence to expand the vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism and ability to translate the feelings of the ebullient moment directly onto canvas.