How to Dance Sitting Down

Details

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)
How to Dance Sitting Down
signed and dated 'R Motherwell 84' (upper right)
acrylic, printed paper and paper collage on panel
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 60.9 cm.)
Executed in 1984.

Provenance

Knoedler & Co., New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1984

Literature

A. Berman, “The Triumph of Abstract Expressionism,” Modern Maturity 28, April-May 1985, p. 108.
G. Perry, "Pulling Together the Pieces of Motherwell's Classic Modernism," Chicago Tribune, January 27, 1985, sec. 13, p. 20.
J. Flam, K. Rogers and T. Clifford, eds., Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941-1991, Volume 3 Collages and Paintings on Paper and Paperboard, New Haven, 2012, p. 320, no. C690 (illustrated).

Exhibited

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Robert Motherwell: New Collages, October 1984, p. 8, no. 13 (illustrated).

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Joanna Szymkowiak

jszymkowiak@christies.com +1 212 636 2100

Lot Essay

Motherwell stated in a 1985 interview "I've just found a marvelous title for a joyful collage. It's two lines from a Charles Olson poem 'How to dance/ Sitting down.' They are a small present from the outside world: a perfect metaphoric equivalent in words for that light-hearted summery colored abstraction."
(G. Perry, "Pulling Together the Pieces of Motherwell's Classic Modernism", Chicago Tribune, January 27, 1985)

How to Dance Sitting Down

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Lot Essay

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