Robert Motherwell: Untitled. (silkscreen and collage) One of ten prints from the suite 'Ten Works by Ten Painters.' Wadsworth Atheneum. 1964

Image with ochre ground, on which collaged white paper, irregularly torn into two roughly triangular shapes: an upper one, with three protruding 'leg' shapes and a lower one, which is roughly a shallow 'reflection' of the upper one. About one third way down sheet: a black, apple shape, but hollow at centre to allow white of collaged paper to show through. In the lower collage piece, some slight black ink marks like light pen marks.

382/500

Given by Kasmin Ltd.

Suite originally housed in a cream cloth-covered portfolio box with cream and white paper lining. On front X / + / X in blue and white and in blue on spine ‘TEN WORKS BY TEN PAINTERS THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM’ Container is unnumbered and housed elsewhere, currently (2011) at the back of '1st Mezz' in the National Art Library. Inside the container still remains four pages (description and transcript below):
Title-page: vertically in black ‘X / + [cut out] / X / [and horizontally through the same +] TEN WORKS [+] TEN PAINTERS / THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM’
Title-page verso of title-page: ‘Copyright 1964, The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut 67/500 [edition number in pen] / Designed and Produced by Ives-Sillman, New Haven, Connecticut’
Page 2: in caps a list of names: ‘GEORGE ORTMAN / FRANK STELLA / ELLSWORTH KELLY / ROBERT MOTHERWELL / ANDY WARHOL / STUART DAVIS / ROY LICHTENSTEIN / LARRY POONS / ROBERT INDIANA / AD REINHARDT’
Page 3: ‘This portfolio was commissioned and printed in an attempt to extend / as much of the visual impact as pssible of ten artists to paper and / to make the prints available to collectors who might not otherwise / have such a vivid slice of the artist. / The dry surface of screening seemed to be most apt to translate the / effect of their painting, both the flatness which is the unifying bond / between the ten, and the insistence of paint on the surface of canvas / so like the visible heft of ink on paper here. / Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr. Curator of Paintings’ [followed by a list of sponsors]
Dims. of container: 65 x 53.5 x 2.5cm.
Condition note: Spillages and staining all over container especially front cover.

The prints were made by Sirocco under the supervision of Ives-Sillman, Inc.

Robert Motherwell is recognised as an Abstract Expressionist - a term applied to a group of artists who came to prominence in the 1940s and '50s, principally in the USA. As the name implies, their work was non-figurative and colour, line and texture were important as ends in themselves rather than being deployed for any traditional style of still life, narrative, landscape etc. Within this group, Motherwell was also important as a critic and in his writings helped to explain the movement and promote some of the more retiring figures within it, such as Mark Rothko.

Unlike most of his peers in the movement, Motherwell became very interested in printmaking, which he took up in the early 1960s. This piece combines the unique character of collage with the multiple one of editioned prints; the torn edge of the paper highly suggestive of the expressionist character of his paintings.

CIRC.126-1969