ROBERT MOTHERWELL AT PEGGY GUGENHEIM COLLECTION VENICE
EARLY COLLAGES
Curated by Susan Davidson
May 26, 2013 – September 8, 2013
May 26, 2013 – September 8, 2013
ROBERT MOTHERWELL AT PEGGY GUGENHEIM COLLECTION VENICE
Early Collages
Curated by Susan Davidson
May 26, 2013 – September 8, 2013
This exhibition is devoted exclusively to early collages and related works on paper produced by Robert Motherwell (Aberdeen, Washington 1915 - Cape Cod, Massachusetts 1991), one of the leading figures of American Abstract Expressionism, during the first decade of his career, from 1941 to 1951. Motherwell has been the subject of several comprehensive retrospectives organized around the globe that have acknowledged the critical role of collage in Motherwell’s oeuvre but have not paid any special attention to his pioneering work in this essential medium. Robert Motherwell: Early Collages is in fact the first presentation to extensively chronicle his artistic beginnings through the lens of his revelatory encounter with the papier collé technique, which Motherwell described in 1944 as “the greatest of our [art] discoveries.”
Featuring forty - four works from renowned museums and private collections from across Europe and the US, the exhibition also honors Peggy Guggenheim. Friendship, patronage, stimulus, and promotion were all components of Peggy’s manifold generosity to Motherwell as well as to other Americans while still in their formative years as artists. In fact, Peggy Guggenheim’s catalytic impact on Motherwell’s development is typical of her crucial role in New York’s 1940s art scene. Thanks to her encouragement and under the tutelage of Chilean Surrealist artist Matta (Roberto Antonio Sebastián Matta Echaurren), Motherwell first experimented with collage in 1943. As he recalled years later, “I might never have done it otherwise, and it was here that I found […] my ‘identity’.” Motherwell’s earliest papier collé works were featured in Exhibition of Collage, the first international presentation of collage in the United States. This groundbreaking show was held at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century museum-gallery in spring 1943. On this occasion, Motherwell displayed his works next to other European artists who were working with collage, such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Kurt Schwitters. Little more than a year later, in autumn 1944, Peggy mounted Motherwell’s first solo U.S. exhibition, which proved to be one of the largest shows in the history of Art of This Century. Over the next decade, Motherwell’s production of large-scale collages even outpaced his creation of paintings; his enthusiasm for and dedication to the collage technique for the remainder of his career sets Motherwell apart from other artists of his generation.
This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue (Guggenheim Publications) that offers a vital reassessment of Motherwell’s work in the collage medium.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, with additional funding from the Dedalus Foundation. The Leadership Committee is gratefully acknowledged for its support, including Gilbert and Shelley Harrison, Dorothy and Sidney Kohl, and Louisa Stude Sarofim. The exhibition is also supported by Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim. The organizers are grateful for the collaboration of the Corriere della Sera and to Radio Italia as media partners. Hangar Design Group designed the exhibition’s publicity materials. Programs auxiliary to the exhibition are supported by the Fondazione Araldi Guinetti, Vaduz. After Venice, the exhibition will be on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (September 27, 2013 – January 5, 2014)
Curated by Susan Davidson
May 26, 2013 – September 8, 2013
This exhibition is devoted exclusively to early collages and related works on paper produced by Robert Motherwell (Aberdeen, Washington 1915 - Cape Cod, Massachusetts 1991), one of the leading figures of American Abstract Expressionism, during the first decade of his career, from 1941 to 1951. Motherwell has been the subject of several comprehensive retrospectives organized around the globe that have acknowledged the critical role of collage in Motherwell’s oeuvre but have not paid any special attention to his pioneering work in this essential medium. Robert Motherwell: Early Collages is in fact the first presentation to extensively chronicle his artistic beginnings through the lens of his revelatory encounter with the papier collé technique, which Motherwell described in 1944 as “the greatest of our [art] discoveries.”
Featuring forty - four works from renowned museums and private collections from across Europe and the US, the exhibition also honors Peggy Guggenheim. Friendship, patronage, stimulus, and promotion were all components of Peggy’s manifold generosity to Motherwell as well as to other Americans while still in their formative years as artists. In fact, Peggy Guggenheim’s catalytic impact on Motherwell’s development is typical of her crucial role in New York’s 1940s art scene. Thanks to her encouragement and under the tutelage of Chilean Surrealist artist Matta (Roberto Antonio Sebastián Matta Echaurren), Motherwell first experimented with collage in 1943. As he recalled years later, “I might never have done it otherwise, and it was here that I found […] my ‘identity’.” Motherwell’s earliest papier collé works were featured in Exhibition of Collage, the first international presentation of collage in the United States. This groundbreaking show was held at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century museum-gallery in spring 1943. On this occasion, Motherwell displayed his works next to other European artists who were working with collage, such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Kurt Schwitters. Little more than a year later, in autumn 1944, Peggy mounted Motherwell’s first solo U.S. exhibition, which proved to be one of the largest shows in the history of Art of This Century. Over the next decade, Motherwell’s production of large-scale collages even outpaced his creation of paintings; his enthusiasm for and dedication to the collage technique for the remainder of his career sets Motherwell apart from other artists of his generation.
This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue (Guggenheim Publications) that offers a vital reassessment of Motherwell’s work in the collage medium.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, with additional funding from the Dedalus Foundation. The Leadership Committee is gratefully acknowledged for its support, including Gilbert and Shelley Harrison, Dorothy and Sidney Kohl, and Louisa Stude Sarofim. The exhibition is also supported by Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim. The organizers are grateful for the collaboration of the Corriere della Sera and to Radio Italia as media partners. Hangar Design Group designed the exhibition’s publicity materials. Programs auxiliary to the exhibition are supported by the Fondazione Araldi Guinetti, Vaduz. After Venice, the exhibition will be on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (September 27, 2013 – January 5, 2014)
I may recommend to see more information and more paintings from my
latest news of Robert Motherwell to click below web page adress.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com/2013/05/robert-motherwell-america-1915-1991.html
COLLAGE IN YELLOW & WHITE 1949
Watercolor, Graphite, Pasted Kraft Papers, Japanese Paper, Glassine Tissue,
Drawing Papers, and Wood Veneer on Board
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Eugene F. Williams III
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
JEUNE FILLE 1944 ( DETAIL )
JEUNE FILLE 1944
Oil, Ink, Gouache, and Pasted Fabric, Kraft Paper, and
Colored Papers on Canvas Board
Private Collection
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
FIGURE WITH BLOTS 1943 ( DETAIL )
SUSAN DAVIDSON
SENIOR CURATOR SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM
MUSEUM NEW YORK
FIGURE WITH BLOTS 1943 ( DETAIL )
FIGURE WITH BLOTS 1943
Oil, Ink, Crayon, and Pasted Paper and
Japanese Paper on Paperboard
David and Audrey Mirvish, Toronto
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
VIEW FROM A HIGH TOWER 1944 - 1945 ( DETAIL )
VIEW FROM A HIGH TOWER 1944 - 1945 ( DETAIL )
VIEW FROM A HIGH TOWER 1944 - 1945
Tempera, Oil, Ink, Pastel, and Pasted
Wood Veneer, Drawing Papers,
Japanese Paper, and Printed Paper on
Paperboard
Private Collection
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
UNTITLED 1944 ( DETAIL )
UNTITLED 1944 ( DETAIL )
PEGGY GUGENHEIM COLLECTION VENICE
PEGGY GUGENHEIM
.jpg)
UNTITLED 1943 ( DETAIL )
UNTITLED 1943
Ink, Gouache, Watercolor, Pastel, and
Pasted Colored Papers and Printed
Paper on Japanese Paper, Mounted on
Paperboard
Galerie Jaeger Bucher/Jeanne-Bucher,
Parigi / Paris
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
UNTITLED 1943 ( DETAIL )
THE PINK MIRROR 1946 ( DETAIL )
THE PINK MIRROR 1946
Oil, Tempera, and Pasted Decorative
Wrapping Paper and Paper on Paperboard
Private Collection
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
VIVA 1946
Oil, Gouache, Sand, and Pasted Papers
on Board
Private Collection, Munich
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
IN GREY WITH PARASOL 1947 ( DETAIL )
IN GREY WITH PARASOL 1947
IN GREY WITH PARASOL 1947 ( DETAIL )
THE POET 1947 ( DETAIL )
THE POET 1947
THE POET 1947 ( DETAIL )
THE DOOR JULY 1943
Ink on Paper
Private Collection
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
PERSONAGE ( AUTOPORTRAIT ) DECEMBER 9, 1943 ( DETAIL )
PERSONAGE ( AUTOPORTRAIT ) DECEMBER 9, 1943 ( DETAIL )
+1943.jpg)
PERSONAGE ( AUTOPORTRAIT ) DECEMBER 9,
1943
Gouache, Ink, and Japanese Paper
Collage on Paperboard
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation,
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia /
Venice
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
THE FLUT 1943 ( DETAIL )
THE FLUT 1943
THE FLUT 1943 ( DETAIL )
b
ROBERT MOTHERWELL IN HIS STUDIO
AT 33 WEST 8 TH STREET NEWYORK 1945
A
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
b
Robert Motherwell was born January 4, 1915, in Aberdeen,
Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to the Otis Art Institute in Los
Angeles at age 11, and in 1932 studied painting briefly at the California
School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Motherwell received a B.A. from Stanford
University in 1937 and enrolled for graduate work later that year in the
Department of Philosophy at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He
traveled to Europe in 1938 for a year of study abroad. His first solo show was
presented at the Raymond Duncan Gallery in Paris in 1939.
In September of 1940, Motherwell settled in New York, where he entered Columbia
University to study art history with Meyer Schapiro, who encouraged him to
become a painter. In 1941, he traveled to Mexico with Roberto Matta for six
months. After returning to New York, his circle came to include William
Baziotes, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, and Jackson Pollock. In 1942, he was
included in the exhibition First
Papers of Surrealism at the
Whitelaw Reid Mansion, New York. In 1944, Motherwell became editor of the
Documents of Modern Art series of books, and he contributed frequently to the
literature on Modern art from that time.
A solo exhibition of Motherwell’s work was held at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of
This Century gallery, New York, in 1944. In 1946, he began to associate with
Herbert Ferber, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko, and spent his first summer in
East Hampton, Long Island. This year, Motherwell was given solo exhibitions at
the Arts Club of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Art, and he
participated in Fourteen
Americans at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York. The artist subsequently taught and lectured throughout
the United States, and exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. A
Motherwell exhibition took place at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Museum des 20.
Jahrhunderts, Vienna, and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in
1976–77. He was given important solo exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London,
and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in 1978. A retrospective of
his works organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York,
traveled in the United States from 1983 to 1985. He died July 16, 1991, in Cape
Cod, Massachusetts.
http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/collections/artisti/biografia.php?id_art=117
I may recommend to see more information and more paintings from my
latest news of Robert Motherwell to click below web page adress.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com/2013/05/robert-motherwell-america-1915-1991.html
