Catalonia
- Date
- 1951
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- associated with
- Catalonia region, Spain, Europe
- probably made in
- New York, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 47 3/4 x 60 in. (121.3 x 152.4 cm)
- Credit Line
- Funds given by the Shoenberg Foundation, Inc., and gift of the Dedalus Foundation
- Rights
- © Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Licensed by ARS, New York, NY
- Object Number
- 188:1995
NOTES
In 1948, Robert Motherwell began his monumental series Elegies to the Spanish Republic, which includes Catalonia, a title which references a region of eastern Spain. This painting consists of gestural black ovoid and rectangular forms on a white background. Outraged by the victory of General Francisco Franco’s fascist government in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the consequent demise of liberal values, Motherwell intended works like this one to have an explicitly political meaning: He wrote of them as “funeral pictures, laments, dirges, elegies—barbaric and austere.”
Provenance
- 1991
Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), Greenwich, CT [1]
1991 - 1995
Dedalus Foundation, Inc., Bedford Hills, NY [2]
1995 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, acquired from Dedalus Foundation, Inc. [3]
Notes:
[1] The painting was in the artist's possession at the time of his death [email from Jeremy Strick, dated November 22, 1995, SLAM document files].
[2] After Motherwell's death, his estate passed to the Dedalus Foundation (see note [1]).
[3] Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, October 26, 1995.
Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), Greenwich, CT [1]
1991 - 1995
Dedalus Foundation, Inc., Bedford Hills, NY [2]
1995 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, acquired from Dedalus Foundation, Inc. [3]
Notes:
[1] The painting was in the artist's possession at the time of his death [email from Jeremy Strick, dated November 22, 1995, SLAM document files].
[2] After Motherwell's death, his estate passed to the Dedalus Foundation (see note [1]).
[3] Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, October 26, 1995.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.