What Happened to Motherwell’s Pink?

Robert Motherwell, “Pancho Villa Dead and Alive,” 1943 (MOMA/Dedalus Foundation)

Should collage artists worry about papers fading over time?  This question was prompted by a hugely informative post by artist/teacher Nancy Nikkal about the  recent Robert Motherwell exhibition at MOMA —  which I blogged about in “How Robert Motherwell Lost His Dada Cred.”

So…did Motherwell coat his papers on both sides with PVA?  I don’t think they even had PVA in 1946.  But should I be using it now?

Not being an art school grad, I have wondered about  this issue.  Some collage instruction books tell you it’s essential to protect your papers unchanged for eternity.  Was I being too lackadaisical about this?

Exquisite Corpse Collage

A peek inside my bag of collage papers

A cafe in Paris, 1925. Suddenly, a little guy with a monocle jumps up at his table, crying “Follow me.” A “prime collection of zanies” leap to their feet, dashing out without paying for their coffee.

Out in the streets of Paris, the monocled guy—–like the Pied Piper———-leads the rest. “Solemnfaced,” they march, “executing a number of idiotic maneuvers.” All the while, they’re chanting: Dada, Dada, Dada.”

Collage Materials: Jim Hodges

Jim Hodges, “Every Touch,” (detail) 1995

Jim Hodges does a lot with flowers.  Also mirrors, granite, scarves, and, oh yeah, paper.  The results are magical and exhilarating. Also fragile and sorrowful. In many of his works, a collage aesthetic is at play.

Jim Hodges, Untitled, 2000. Acrylic on newspaper, 56 x 68.6 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Artlicks via Another Mag.

Paper was the first material that fascinated him. He talked about it during his 2009 exhibition Love, Etc. at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in an interview with Christophe Ecoffet.  Hodges liked “the flexibility of paper, how paper can tear, and be unfolded and folded.”  In one work, he collaged hearts cut from painted newspaper.