Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): RM52; Signed, titles and dated on verso: "LA DANSE II" Robert Motherwell 1952
the artist, New York (1952–53; sold through the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, to MMA)
New York. Samuel M. Kootz Gallery. "Robert Motherwell," April 6–25, 1953, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
New York. B. Altman & Co. December 4–10, 1969, no catalogue.
American Embassy, Moscow. "American Painting, 1830–1970," opened June 1974, no. 20.
New York. M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. "East Hampton/New York: New York Museums Salute Guild Hall," June 10–19, 1981, unnumbered cat.
New York. Hunter College Art Gallery. "Artists at Hunter, 1950–1965: William Baziotes, Fritz Bultman, Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Lippold, Robert Motherwell, Ray Parker, Ad Reinhardt, Tony Smith, George Sugarman," March 28–April 27, 1984, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection One: Twentieth-Century Art," February 1–April 30, 1985, no catalogue.
Roslyn Harbor, N. Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "Intimates and Confidants in Art: Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Friends," February 28–May 23, 1993, unnumbered cat. (p. 39).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Robert Motherwell: Lyric Suite," February 2–July 26, 2015, no catalogue.
Madrid. Fundación Juan March. "The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum, New York, 1950," March 6–13, 2020 [intended closing date June 7, 2020], no. 9.
J[ames]. F[itzsimmons]. "57th Street: Robert Motherwell." Art Digest 27 (April 15, 1953), p. 17, calls it "Danse II".
William C. Seitz. "Abstract–Expressionist Painting in America: An Interpretation Based on the Work and Thought of Six Key Figures." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1955, pp. 65, 175, 340, fig. 182, calls it "La Danse".
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, p. 192, ill.
H. H. Arnason. "Robert Motherwell: The Years 1948 to 1965." Art International 10 (April 20, 1966), p. 27, calls it "La Danse #2".
Michael Batterberry. Twentieth Century Art. New York, 1973, pp. 231–32, colorpl. 181, calls it "The Dance".
"500 View U.S. Art at Moscow Embassy." New York Times (June 22, 1974), p. 18, calls it "Dance II".
Henry Geldzahler in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 205.
Robert C. Hobbs. "Motherwell's Concern with Death in Painting: An Investigation of His Elegies to the Spanish Republic, Including an Examination of His Philosophical and Methodological Considerations." PhD diss., University of North Carolina, 1975, p. 220, pl. 20.
H. H. Arnason. Robert Motherwell. New York, 1977, p. 33, pl. 13 (installation photo), calls it "La Danse No. 2".
Marcelin Pleynet. "La Méthode de Robert Motherwell." Tel Quel 71 (Autumn 1977), p. 197, calls it "la Danse no. 2".
Marcelin Pleynet inRobert Motherwell: Choix de peintures et de collages, 1941–1977. Exh. cat., ARC/Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 1977, unpaginated [reprints Ref. Pleynet 1977, Tel Quel], calls it "La Danse no. 2".
E. A. Carmean Jr. inAmerican Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist. Exh. cat., National Art Gallery. Washington, D.C., 1978, pp. 106–7, calls it "La Dance II"; relates that this painting was made during a break in the artist's Elegy series.
H. H. Arnason. Robert Motherwell. 2nd rev. ed. (1st ed., 1977). New York, 1982, p. 33 , pl. 23 (installation photo), calls it "La Danse No. 2".
William C. Seitz. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America. Cambridge, Mass., 1983, pp. 23–24, 65, 126, fig. 194.
Eugene Victor Thaw. "The Abstract Expressionists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 44 (Winter 1986–87), p. 9, fig. 5 (color).
Marcelin Pleynet. Les Etats–Unis de la peinture. Paris, 1986, pp. 83–84 [reprints Ref. Pleynet 1977], calls it "la Danse no. 2".
Marcelin Pleynet. Robert Motherwell. Paris, 1989, pp. 38–39, ill. (color), calls it "la Danse no. 2".
Marcia E. Vetrocq. "Report from Turin: Back to Basics." Art in America 80 (April 1992), p. 69.
Sam Hunter inAmerican Art, 1930–1970. Exh. cat., Galleria Lingotto. Milan, 1992, p. 110, ill. p. 187 (color).
Constance Schwartz inIntimates and Confidants in Art: Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Friends. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1993, p. 6.
Franklin Hill Perrell inIntimates and Confidants in Art: Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Friends. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1993, pp. 18, 79, ill. p. 39 (color).
Linda Muehlig inMasterworks of American Painting and Sculpture from the Smith College Museum of Art. Ed. Linda Muehlig. Exh. cat., Smith College Museum of Art. New York, 1999, pp. 198–201, p. 261 nn. 3, 4, 10, compares it to the artist's painting "La Danse" in the Smith College Museum of Art's collection (1952, Northampton, Mass.).
Jack Flam, Katy Rogers, and Tim Clifford. Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1941–1991. Vol. 2, Paintings on Canvas and Panel. New Haven, 2012, pp. 82–83, no. P138, ill. (color), note that this work was used a s a maquette for a tapestry created by Edward Fields.
Jack Flam in Jack Flam Katy Rogers and Tim Clifford. Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1941–1991. Vol. 1, Essays and References. New Haven, 2012, p. 80.
Beatriz Cordero inThe Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum, New York, 1950. Ed. Bradford R. Collins et al. Exh. cat., Fundación Juan March. Madrid, 2020, p. 83.
Bradford R. Collins et al., ed. The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum, New York, 1950. Exh. cat., Fundación Juan March. Madrid, 2020, p. 275, no. 9, ill. p. 173 (color).
Robert Motherwell (American, Aberdeen, Washington 1915–1991 Provincetown, Massachusetts)
1966
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