Robert Motherwell The Quarrel (Belknap 294; Engberg & Banach 318) 1983

There is no better art work for kissing and making up than "The Quarrel"! 

This rare Robert Motherwell lithograph features the poem "The Quarrel" by the United States Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz. Read the full text of the poem in the artwork and reproduced below; it makes an amazing gift to a loved one or work associate or as a reminder of these important universal truths in any home or office. The work is hand signed and numbered in graphite on recto (front) from an edition of 100.  It also bears the publisher's distinctive blind stamp (Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York).  Unframed with deckled edges and in fine condition.

Literature: (B. 294; Engberg and Banach (E. & B.) 318)

The full text of the poem is as follows: 

The Quarrel

The word I spoke in anger

weighs less than a parsley seed, 

but a road runs through it

that leads to my grave, 

that bought-and-paid-for lot

on a salt-sprayed hill in Truro

where the scrub pines

overlook the bay. 

Half-way I'm dead enough, 

strayed from my own nature

and my fierce hold on life.

If I could cry, I'd cry, 

but I'm too old to be 

anybody's child.

Liebchen,

with whom should I quarrel

except in the hiss of love, 

that harsh irregular flame?

Stanley Kunitz

SIGNATURE

Hand signed and numbered in graphite on recto (front) with publisher's distinctive blindstamp.