Lot 1

TO BE INSERTED BELOW FRONTISPIECE: Boris Leavitt 1905-1996 NEXT PAGE Boris Leavitt A Remembrance An illustration of de Kooning's remarkable Woman, 1949, in Harold Rosenberg's monograph of the artist brought me to the steps of Boris and Sophie Leavitt's beautiful farm in Hanover, Pennsylvania almost twenty years ago. At that time Woman, 1949 was acknowledged as one of two or possibly three great de Kooning Women still owned privately, and, although it was extensively illustrated in exhibition catalogues, I never had seen the painting. In answer to a request, Boris Leavitt graciously invited me to visit to give me that opportunity. No illustration can reproduce the intensity of the painting, its bright colors, its overall impact and beauty. Seeing Woman, 1949 confirmed its reputation as one of de Kooning's finest paintings from this rare and famous series. Subsequent viewings of the painting, either at the Leavitt farm or at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. where it has been on loan for several years, proved not only that it was a de Kooning masterpiece but a 20th century masterpiece. Equally thrilling on that first visit was to see the other paintings the Leavitts had collected, especially the other Abstract Expressionist masterpieces. As rare as the de Kooning was Philip Guston's Beggar's Joys, representing the artist's abstract period at its finest, Motherwell's masterful Two Figures with Cerulean Blue Stripe, accompanied by three drawings from his Beside the Sea series, the delicate Baziotes and densely colored Gottlieb. Like other dedicated collectors, Mr. Leavitt talked about the one painting he always regretted letting go, Pollock's 1953 Four Opposites, which Christie's sold in 1980, around the time of my visit. The Leavitt collection was a lesson in post-war art history. An avid collector, Leavitt first began collecting on a trip to Paris in the early 1950s where he met Pierre and Edouard Loeb, dealers in earlier 20th century art. He bought from them works by Picasso, Miró, Ernst, Arp and other European masters. Unhappily, a significant group from this period was stolen from his farm and never retrieved. Luckily, the American masterpieces were either too large or already on loan in Washington, D.C., escaping the theft. In a recent conversation, Albert Loeb, Pierre Loeb's son, recalled that his father Pierre recommended that Mr. Leavitt meet Sidney Janis, who was the representing the emerging American artists of the day. He visited the Janis Gallery in the early 1950s and at that time acquired the masterpieces for which the collection is now renowned. Boris Leavitt's appetite for contemporary art was amazing. Spurred on by the enthusiasm of Jack Cowart, then curator of 20th Century Art at the National Gallery, he purchased some works by Rothenberg, Salle and Fischl: young artists who were establishing their reputations in the 1970s and early 1980s. In spite of failing eyesight, he enjoyed his new purchases by hearing detailed descriptions and touching their surfaces on his rare visits to Washington, D.C. to "see" the works. As a Russian emigré, successful businessman, generous donor to various charitable organizations, for which he was given an honorable law degree by New York University just one week before his death, an art and music connoisseur, Boris Leavitt was a true American success story, appreciating what was the best in our culture by surrounding himself with some of the finest art executed by American artists. Martha Baer September 1996

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)

Beside the Sea, #36

Details

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)
Beside the Sea, #36
initialed and dated 'RM 62' upper right--signed, titled and dated again '"Beside the Sea, #36" Robert Motherwell 1962' on the reverse of the cardboard backing
oil on paper
29 x 23in. (73.7 x 58.4cm.)

Provenance

Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York.

Literature

H. H. Arnason, Robert Motherwell, New York 1982, p. 149, no. 186 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Northampton, Smith College Museum of Art, Robert Motherwell, Jan. 1963, no. 30.
Roslyn, Nassau County Museum of Art, The Abstract Expressionists and Their Precursors, Jan.-Mar. 1981, p. 58, no. 59 (illustrated).

Further details

CAPTION TO BE INSERTED BELOW FIGURE 1, IN BETWEEN LOTS 1 AND 2:
View from Motherwell's Provincetown, M.A. studio at low tide

CAPTION TO BE INSERTED BELOW FIGURE 2, IN BETWEEN LOTS 1 AND 2:
View from Motherwell's Provincetown, M.A. studio at high tide

Lot Essay

Robert Motherwell's oeuvre contains a significant body of works on paper in a variety of media, from prints and drawings to collages and oils on paper, and it is in these works that Motherwell's sensitivity to materials is most eloquently expressed and his imagination given full reign both in subject matter and execution.

Working on paper afforded Motherwell the freedom to investigate on a small scale all sorts of picture making, oftentimes leading into series of larger works on canvas. From the somber, beautiful collages of the 1940s and 1950s with their political overtones to the freely painted, gestural oils on paper of the 1962 Beside the Sea series, we see early on his great versatility and mastery of the medium. Many subjects challenged him, both intellectually and emotionally, and in the works of the Beside the Sea series, we see him captivated by one of nature's primal forces.

"For years my summer studio has been directly on the bay in Provincetown on Cape Cod. There is a 900-foot tidal flat and, just as one can play ball games at low tide, at high tide the sea in a high wind breaks against the bulkhead in violent spray. In the Beside the Sea series, I made the painted spray with such physical force that the strong rag paper split, and it was only when I found rag paper laminated with glue in five layers, that the surface could take the full force of my shoulder, arm, hand and brush without splitting. One might say that the true way to 'imitate' nature is to employ its own processes" (Robert Motherwell, in H. H. Arnason, Robert Motherwell, New York 1977, p. 135).

Please see lots 2 and 8 for additional versions of this subject.