{
"data": {
"id": 139825,
"accession_number": "1963.583",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. LV, 1955\u201360. Robert Motherwell (American, 1915\u20131991). Oil on canvas; framed: 181 x 196 x 4 cm (71 1/4 x 77 3/16 x 1 9/16 in.); unframed: 178.1 x 193.7 cm (70 1/8 x 76 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963.583. \u00a9 Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. LV",
"creation_date": "1955\u201360",
"creation_date_earliest": 1955,
"creation_date_latest": 1960,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "American Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "American - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 181 x 196 x 4 cm (71 1/4 x 77 3/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 178.1 x 193.7 cm (70 1/8 x 76 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 1.81,
"height_inch": 71,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 1.96,
"width_inch": 77,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"depth": 0.04,
"depth_inch": 1,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5625
},
"unframed": {
"height": 1.781,
"height_inch": 70,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"width": 1.937,
"width_inch": 76,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304723,
"title": "Year in Review (1964)",
"description": "Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1964-12-08T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 515690,
"title": "The White House Festival of the Arts",
"description": "The White House Festival of the Arts. The White House, Washington, DC (June 14-15, 1965); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (organizer) (June 18-July 11, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-06-14T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 515856,
"title": "Robert Motherwell",
"description": "Robert Motherwell. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 29-November 1, 1965); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1070 AB Amsterdam, Netherlands (January 8-20, 1966); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (January 31-February 28, 1966); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (March 1-April 1, 1966); Museum Folkwang, 45128 Essen, Germany (July 2-August 14, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1965-09-29T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301294,
"title": "Works from the Contemporary Collection",
"description": "Works from the Contemporary Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 1-October 15, 1969).",
"opening_date": "1969-07-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 443853,
"title": "American Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist",
"description": "American Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (June 1, 1978-January 14, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1978-06-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 181802,
"title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, Museum of Modern Art of S\u00e3o Paulo, VI Biennial of The Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo (September - December 1961).",
"opening_date": "1961-09-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Pasadena, CA, Pasadena Art Museum, Robert Motherwell: A Retrospective Exhibition (18 February - 11 March 1962), no. 42.",
"opening_date": "1962-02-18T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art, An Exhibition of the Work of Robert Motherwell (10-28 January 1963), no. 15.",
"opening_date": "1963-01-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Year in Review (1 - 31 January 1965)",
"opening_date": "1965-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Washington, DC, The National Gallery of Art, The White House Festival of the Arts, June 14-July 11, 1965, cat no. 27, p. 12.",
"opening_date": "1965-06-14T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Robert Motherwell, September 29-November 30, 1965, cat. no. 46, repr. p. 47.",
"opening_date": "1965-09-29T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "also to: Amsterdam, The Stedelijk Museum, January 8-January 20, 1966, cat. no. 41; London, Whitechapel Gallery; Basel, Kunsthalle; Essen, Museum Folkwang.",
"opening_date": "1966-01-08T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Torino, Galleria Civica D'Arte Moderna, Robert Motherwell (September - October 1966), no. 41.",
"opening_date": "1966-09-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA: Works from the Contemporary Collection, July 1-mid-October, 1969",
"opening_date": "1969-10-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, Retrospectiva del gran pinter northamericano, April-May 1975, cat. no. 8, listed p. 31.",
"opening_date": "1975-04-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Washington, DC, The National Gallery or Art, American Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist, June 1, 1978-February 4, 1979, cat. no. 4, p. 109, repr. fig. 10.",
"opening_date": "1978-06-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Buffalo, NY, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Robert Motherwell Retrospective Exhibition, September 15-November 27, 1983, cat. no. 35, p. 126, repr. p. 81.",
"opening_date": "1983-09-15T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "also to: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, January 4-March 4, 1984; San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, April 7-May 28, 1984; Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, June 22-August 5, 1984; Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, September 8-October 28, 1984; New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, December 1, 1984-January 31, 1985.",
"opening_date": "1984-01-04T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Minneapolis, MN, Walker Art Center, Robert Motherwell: The Spanish Elegies, October 11, 1992-January 3, 1993.",
"opening_date": "1992-10-11T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): \"The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art\", no. 94, p. 121, color repr. p. 35.",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "[Marlborough Gerson Gallery, New York, NY]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, purchased in 1963.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "In 1964, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper announced our acquisition of this artwork with the headline, \"Museum Buys Weird Abstract 'Painting.'\"",
"description": "This abstract composition belongs to a series of more than 250 compositions expressing Robert Motherwell's response to the Spanish Civil War (1936\u201339) and its struggle against fascism. Here the bold, black ovals and vertical rectangular bars press against one another in front of a background of sweeping white brushstrokes. The contrasts of form and color suggest metaphors for war and peace, life and death, freedom and oppression.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60469093"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Rutland, Beau and Reto Th\u00fcring, \"Painters Painting Paintings,\" Masterworks on Loan: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.",
"page_number": "Reproduced, p. 30.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cRecent Acquisitions Press Release,\u201d February 19, 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr1209"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cAnnual Report for 1963.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 6 (June 1964): 127\u2013161.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 132, 146; reproduced: p. 147",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152003"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cThe Language of Art.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 9 (November 1964): 211\u2013231.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p.217-219, fig. 3",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152016"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 202",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n226"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 202",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n226"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 4",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/20thCenturyArtCMA/page/n5"
},
{
"citation": "Lucie-Smith, Edward. Late Modern: The Visual Arts Since 1945. New York: Praeger, 1969.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 39, fig. 18",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\u201cFranz Kline, Accent Grave.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 2 (February 1969): 62\u201368.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 64-65, fig. 4",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152255"
},
{
"citation": "Hamilton, George Heard. 19th and 20th Century Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1970.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 372, fig. 343",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 250",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n270"
},
{
"citation": "Neet, Jane. \u201cMondrian\u2019s \u2018Chrysanthemum.\u2019\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 7 (September 1987): 282\u2013303.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 283, fig. 2",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159997"
},
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 35, no. 94",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Flam, Jack D., Katy Rogers, and Tim Clifford. Motherwell: 100 Years. Milano, Italy: Skira; New York: Dedalus Foundation, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 122, fig. 123; and p. 234. Mentioned: P. 119 and PP. 232, 235.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterworks on Loan: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art: July Through September 2016. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.",
"page_number": "p. 30",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945. London: Thames and Hudson, 2020.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 28-29, no. 13",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Chassey, E\u0301ric de. Le surre\u0301alisme dans l'art ame\u0301ricain: Dali\u0301, Ernst, Tanguy, Pollock, Rothko, Johns, Bourgeois. Paris : Re\u0301union des muse\u0301es nationaux, 2021.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 99, fig. 15",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.583",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 139825,
"creators": [
{
"id": 3567,
"description": "Robert Motherwell (American, 1915\u20131991)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1915",
"death_year": "1991",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1963-11-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1955,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1955\u201360",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:50:04.765000"
}
}