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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.49
People
Robert Motherwell, American (Aberdeen, WA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown, MA)
Title
Elegy
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1948
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228952

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Paper collage and gouache on masonite
Technique
Collage
Dimensions
sight: 74.9 x 60 cm (29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.)
framed: 79.7 x 64.5 x 4.5 cm (31 3/8 x 25 3/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: Motherwell 11/48

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, New York], sold; to Fogg Art Museum, 1949.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Louise E. Bettens Fund
Copyright
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
1949.49
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • An exhibition of the work of Robert Motherwell, exh. cat., Smith College Museum of Art (Northampton, MA, 1963), pl. 4
  • Frank O'Hara, Robert Motherwell, exh. cat., Doubleday & Co. (Garden City, NY, 1965), p. 15
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 156, ill.
  • Robert Motherwell, exh. cat., Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, Germany, 1976), p. 100, cat. 10, ill.
  • H. Harvard Arnason, Robert Motherwell, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1977), p.
  • Robert Motherwell: Paintings and Collages from 1941 to the Present, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts (London, England, 1978), pp. 14, 24, cat. 5, ill.
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, p. 93, fig. 88
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), p. 203, cat. 233, ill.
  • Robert Saltonstall Mattison, Robert Motherwell: the Formative Years, U.M.I. Research Press (Ann Arbor, MI, 1987), pp. 196-197, fig. 77
  • Marcelin Pleynet, Robert Motherwell, Edition Daniel Papierski (Paris, France, 1989), pp. 31-34, ill.
  • Jack Flam, Motherwell, Ediciones Poligrafa, S.A. (Barcelona, Spain, 1991), cat. 26, ill.

Exhibition History

  • Seventeen Contemporary American Painters, World's Fair, 1958, Brussels, 04/17/1958 - 10/19/1958; Usis Galleries, London, 10/31/1958 - 11/22/1958; World House Galleries, New York, 12/13/1958 - 01/17/1959
  • Robert Motherwell's Paintings, Bennington College, Bennington, 04/24/1959 - 09/01/1959
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Wesleyan University, 1959, Davison Art Center, Middletown, 07/01/1959 - 08/31/1959
  • Collages by Robert Motherwell, Samuel M. Kootz Gallery Inc., New York, 10/04/1959 - 12/31/1959
  • Robert Motherwell, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, 01/10/1963 - 01/28/1963
  • Robert Motherwell, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 09/29/1965 - 11/01/1965; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 12/01/1965 - 01/01/1966; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 01/31/1966 - 02/28/1966; Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, 03/01/1966 - 04/01/1966
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Lincoln Laboratory, 1969, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, 06/16/1969 - 09/30/1969
  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Collages of Robert Motherwell, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 11/15/1972 - 01/15/1973; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 02/06/1973 - 02/25/1973; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 03/14/1973 - 04/22/1973; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 05/10/1973 - 06/24/1973
  • Robert Motherwell Retrospective, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, 02/01/1975 - 02/28/1975
  • New York School: From the First Generation, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/10/1975 - 01/06/1976
  • Robert Motherwell, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 09/03/1976 - 10/10/1976; Kulturhuset, Stockholm, 11/01/1976 - 11/30/1976; Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 12/01/1976 - 12/31/1976
  • Robert Motherwell: Paintings and Collages from 1941 to the Present, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 01/01/1978 - 12/31/1978
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/21/1985 - 01/05/1986
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 07/31/1999 - 09/26/1999; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 10/09/1999 - 11/14/1999; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, 12/02/1999 - 12/27/1999; Oita City Museum, Oita, 01/06/2000 - 02/06/2000; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Ibaraki, 02/11/2000 - 03/26/2000

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu