Robert Motherwell, Octavio Paz Suite: Spanish Elegy, 1988

pencil signed, annotated "Trial Position Proof" and dated on the front. This is a unique trial Position proof. According to the catalogue raisonne (Engberg/Banach, page 321), there was only one position proof, aside from the regular edition of 20.
lithograph and chine appliqué
Measurements:
Artwork:
22 7/8 x 28 in.
Framed:
24.5" x 30" x 1"
Paper: Arches paper; Japanese Gampi handmade paper
Production Sequence:
2 colors (including 1 colored paper) printed in 2 steps from 1 aluminum plate: 1. black - plate (on Gampi paper); 2. Gampi paper adhered to Arches paper (chine appliqué, with Japanese Kitakata handmade paper added between the appliqué sheet and the Arches paper)
Catalogue Raisonne: Dedalus, 433
Concordance: Banach, Engberg/Banach, 406 (page 329)
Concordance: Terenzio & Belknap, 374
Commentary: The catalogue raisonne states, "Motherwell's interest in the Mexican poet Octavio Paz was stimulated by Dore Ashton, who had known Paz since 1959 and introduced him to Motherwell in the early 1970s. An assiduous reader of Ashton's writing, Paz first encountered the quotation by Motherwell that would become the title and leitmotif of the poem he dedicated to Motherwell's art in a text by Ashton. Ashton later made one of the first translations of the poem for Motherwell."