Robert Motherwell

Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York
E. Daniel Lieberman, Sant Louis (Missouri)
Private Collection
Pascal de Sarthe Fine Art, Los Angeles
Private Collection

Los Angeles, Pascal de Sarthe Gallery, 19^th & 20^th Century Masters, December 1990 – January 1991

This work is in very good condition. There is evidence of minor and stable cracks along the extreme edges and faint wear to the corner edges. The surface has recently benefitted from a light topical cleaning by Amann + Estabrook Conservation, and as such the colors are vibrant and the surface is clean. Under ultraviolet inspection there is no evidence of inpainting. Framed in a wood frame with a gilt face.
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The striking angular forms and powerful geometric color fields of Summertime in Italy #14 represent one of the strongest examples from Robert Motherwell's series of works crafted following his 1960 summer sojourn in Alassio, Italy.  Inspired by the landscape and fresh surroundings of his new environment, Motherwell embarked on a group of works beginning in 1960 that he would continue to work on through 1964.  Alassio, a beautiful resort facing the Ligurian Sea on the coast of the West Ligurian Riviera, is situated in an area also referred to as the "Riviera della Palme", the pearl of the so-called Baia del Sole.  The soft, glowing light of long summer days and lucid reflections off the sea stimulated this group of works which held a certain nostalgia for the artist and each carried the signifying, sentimental title 'Summertime in Italy' and numbered chronologically.  As the artist reflects, "My paintings are not an 'abstract version of nature', nor is most Abstract Expressionist painting.  My work has a strong sense of light, but it is not atmospheric light; it is generated instead by planar color and value.  And in real life, I would rather spend time looking at nature that has been modified by man – at parks or town squares with walls, say – than at raw nature or wilderness... The different images in my paintings are the result of these and various other preoccupations.  I work with these more or less a priori conceptions, plus gestures, then my own imagery is just what comes out.  I name it all afterwards.  Naming is primitive, inadequate but deeply rooted way of identifying the complex nature of reality" (the artist quoted in: Jack Flam, Motherwell, New York, 1991, p. 11).

 

Summertime in Italy #14, executed at a later date 1963-64, exhibits a peaked triangular form rising from the horizon, an abstract reference to landscape - perhaps suggestive of an Apennine mountain with the blue in the foreground as the ocean which borders the mountain range.  Executed during a highly inspired and prolific time in the artist's career, the black and white dominant contrast, most recognized in Motherwell's Elegy series which began in the 1950s and that he continued to work on throughout the early 60s, is also the basis of the Summertime in Italy series and mirrors the austerity and drama of the Elegy paintings.  The addition of blue and ochre to the palette of Summertime in Italy #14, softens the angular forms and cropped, geometric composition, given to the otherwise severe and urgent gestures.  Much of Motherwell's imagery has been stated chromatically: "Mainly I use each color as simply symbolic: ocher for the earth, green for the grass, blue for the sea and sky.  I guess black and white, which I use most often, tend to be the protagonists" (ibid, p. 9).

 

Reflecting Motherwell's Abstract Expressionist roots, Summertime in Italy #14 embodies the artist's psychology in his work more than the physical landscape itself.  The silhouetted triangle evokes foremost an immediate, sweeping gesture that is further energized by the incorporation the blue segments on either side and the strong yellow line across the bottom of the canvas. The importance of the act and process of painting remain evident even in light of the nature-referencing title that has more personal associations than overt physical references.