WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Conrad Marca-Relli

Conrad Marca-Relli

Conrad Marca-Relli

American, 1913–2000

WA-00021990

Drawing

Representation

None documented

8

Institutional Exhibitions

16

Works in Collection

20

Assets Indexed

5

Authority-backed Facts

0

Publications Referenced

80%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (2)

WikidataQ472846

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

Printed, Cut, Folded, and Torn

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1974

No image

The New American Painting and Sculpture: The First Generation

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969

No image

American Collages

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1965

No image

The Art of Assemblage

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1961

No image

Selections from the Art Lending Service

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1960

No image

50 Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1958

No image

Recent American Acquisitions

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1957

No image

Selections from the Art Lending Service

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1955

Field Verification (5 fields)

5 cross-verified · 0 single-source

BiographyManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
Birth yearManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
Death yearManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
NationalityManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
Wikidata IdManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓

Source Registry (1)

Manual Rehabilitationhttps://www.moma.org/artists/3749
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred95%

About

Why this artist matters now

Conrad Marca-Relli was an American abstract painter and collage artist whose layered, gestural compositions emerged from the postwar New York School. Working primarily in oil and canvas collage, he built complex surfaces by tearing and reassembling painted fragments, creating a dynamic tension between composition and accident. His work occupied a distinctive middle ground between gestural abstraction and constructive process, influencing generations of artists working with collage as a formal language rather than representational device.

Source: Manual Rehabilitation · Trust score: 95% · Updated 27d ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

—

Medium

Drawing

Related Artists

6 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Museum of Modern ArtNew York Art Institute of Chicago

Canonical record

Artworks (16)

1982 · Lithograph

Sheet: 28 × 33 in. (71.1 × 83.8 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1968 · collage with hand-coloring

Sheet: 52.2 x 65 cm (20 9/16 x 25 9/16 in.); Image: 36.3 x 42 cm (14 5/16 x 16 9/16 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

1966 · Relief plate, printed in color with newsprint collage additions

plate 18 1/8 x 23 3/4" (46 x 60.4 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1966 · Relief plate, printed in color with newsprint collage additions

plate 18 1/4 x 23 3/4" (46.4 x 60.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

The Paris Review

The Paris Review

1965 · Silkscreen

40 x 26" (101.5 x 66.0 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1960 · Cut and pasted canvas fragments on canvas

23 x 26 1/8 in. (58.4 x 66.4 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1958 · oil and collage on canvas

Unframed: 137.1 x 180.3 cm (54 x 71 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

1956 · Oil cloth, tinted canvas, enamel paint, and oil on canvas

71 1/8 in. × 131 3/16 in. × 1 1/4 in. (180.7 × 333.2 × 3.2 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1956 · Painted and cut sections of oil on canvas mounted on canvas

53 1/4 × 83 1/2 in. (135.3 × 212.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Abstract Composition

Abstract Composition

1956 · Collage composed of charcoal and graphite on cut-out, burned and abraded cream wove papers, laid down on white cardboard

44.6 × 56.6 cm (17 9/16 × 22 5/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Abstract Composition

Abstract Composition

1956 · Collage composed of charcoal and graphite on cut-out, burned and abraded cream wove papers, laid down on black wove paper, laid down on white cardboard

45 × 56.5 cm (17 3/4 × 22 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Abstract Composition

Abstract Composition

1956 · Collage composed of charcoal and graphite on cut-out, burned and abraded cream wove papers, laid down on black wove paper, laid down on white cardboard

45.1 × 56.5 cm (17 13/16 × 22 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

1955 · Cut and painted canvas fragments on canvas

36 7/8 × 46 5/8 in. (93.7 × 118.4 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sleeping Figure

Sleeping Figure

1953 · Collaged painted canvas

52 1/8 x 6' 5 5/8" (132.4 x 197.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Abstract Composition

Abstract Composition

1951 · Collage composed of graphite on cut-out, burned and abraded cream wove papers, laid down on white cardboard

44.2 × 56.6 cm (17 7/16 × 22 5/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Untitled

Cut fabric and wax on paper on board

10 1/2 x 13 7/8" (26.4 x 35.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

View all 16 artworks →

Artwork sources (4)

16 published of 19 catalogued · 10 with image

The Met
5 published
MoMA
5 published3 img
Art Institute Chicago
4 publishedof 7 catalogued7 img
Cleveland Museum of Art
2 published

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 2)

2 entries · 1 sources

Ibiza
1968 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
The Surge
1958 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Seated Figure (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

Relationships

3

Collections3

Museum of Modern Art Art Institute of Chicago Heritage Auctions

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Market

Auction sale history

Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction

Heritage Auctions