Live Auction 15348Post-War and Contemporary Art
Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)
Lot 18

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)

A View No. 3

Closed1 March 2018

Price Realised

USD 47,500

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Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)
A View No. 3
signed with the artist's initials 'RM' (upper right)
oil and ink on paper
14 ¼ x 11 ¼ in. (36.2 x 28.6 cm.)
Executed circa 1958.

David Gibbs & Co., London, 1959
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw, New York
Their sale; Sotheby's, New York, 12 April 1965, lot 27
Private collection
Anon. sale; Sotheby's, New York, 30 March 1978, lot 12
André Emmerich Gallery, New York and James Goodman Gallery, New York
Edward Saxe, New York, 1978
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Specialist note

The diamond-shaped form that appears in the View series, including in the present work, developed out of works such as The Spanish Night, which Motherwell created while living in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a small Basque town located on the French-Spanish border. In a 1961 interview with Rudi Blesh, Motherwell discusses the series and reveals: "about that title I meant it as a view, a point of view, one way of looking at painting" (J. Flam, et al, Robert Motherwell, Paintings and Collages, A Catalogue Raisonné, 1941-1991, Volume Three: Collages and Paintings on Paper and Paperboard, New Haven and London, 2012, p. 444.)