Signed “R. Motherwell” in pencil lower right

Numbered in pencil lower right; workshop chop mark lower right; workshop number “RM86-847” in pencil reverse lower left

200

1 archive proof
60 AP
1 BAT
1 CP
2 PP
1 TP
1 WP

Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York

Roger Campbell and Lee Funderburg, Tyler Graphics Ltd.

Prep work for continuous-tone lithography by Kenneth Tyler; plate preparation by Funderburg; proofing and edition printing by Campbell and Funderburg

1 color printed in 1 run from 1 aluminum plate: red ochre – plate

First cataloguing

On the release of this print in May 1987, Motherwell signed seventeen impressions as follows: edition proofs 2/200-10/200, two printer's proofs, one BAT, one archive impression, one trial proof, one work proof, and two artist's proofs. He intended to sign the remained of the edition on a subsequent visit to Tyler Graphics, shortly after the first numbered impressions were sold. When he returned in November to complete signing the edition, he decided to add something to the image and asked Tyler Graphics to suspend sale of the remaining prints until revisions were made. He took a number of unsigned impressions back to the studio, along with the first edition proof and the original work proof and hand-painted background colors around the line composition. In March 1990 Motherwell returned to Tyler Graphics and experimented with colored background plates based on his hand-painted studies. It was his intention to reprint the remained of the impressions with a gray background plate (see Elegy Sketch, State I, cat. no. 492). Since these revisions were not completed when Motherwell died in 1991, the remaining unsigned impressions of Elegy Sketch were destroyed.

The original hand-painted work proof for Elegy Sketch was marked with Motherwell's notes for compositional revisions to be incorporated into State I. It was signed with initials and inscribed "work proof (original print)." The first edition impression of Elegy Sketch was also hand-painted with a combination of yellow and blue, signed with initials, and incorrectly numbered 1/175.