Ellsworth KellyEllsworth Kelly, Yellow Curve – Portikus (Black Border)1990
1990
About the Item
- Creator:Ellsworth Kelly (1923, American)
- Creation Year:1990
- Dimensions:Height: 33.13 in (84.16 cm)Width: 23.38 in (59.39 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:unknownPrice: $300
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU7913932702
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly was one of the key figures in postwar American art, exercising major influence on the fields of Pop art, minimalism, Color-Field and hard-edge painting. Widely known for his brightly colored geometric compositions, he was among the first artists, alongside his contemporary Frank Stella, to use irregularly shaped canvases. Although highly abstract, Kelly’s paintings and prints are precise expressions in color and form of his sensory experience of the world.
Kelly's works, both two- and three-dimensional, are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and displayed at such sites as the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Kelly grew up in the town of Newburgh, New York, near the Oradell Reservoir. He was an avid birder as a child and loved the colorful illustrations of naturalist John James Audubon. Encouraged to study art by a high school teacher, he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, remaining there until 1943, when he was inducted into the army. During World War II, he served along with scores of other artists, in a unit known as the Ghost Army, where he learned the elements of camouflage while creating ersatz trucks and tanks intended to mislead Axis forces.
When the war was over, Kelly took advantage of the G.I. Bill to study painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, drawing inspiration from the museum's collections, and, later, at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, in Paris. While in France, he immersed himself in the varied artistic movements and styles represented there and befriended Americans avant-gardists, such as composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham, as well as the German-French Surrealist Jean Arp and Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
Upon his return to the United States, in 1954, he found himself at odds with the dominant style of the period, Abstract Expressionism, which favored a dynamic and energetic application of paint in a loose manner. Like Stella, Kelly was interested in formal precision and explorations of color. Following an exhibition of his work at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1956, Kelly’s work was included in the "Young America 1957” show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
During the 1960s, Kelly played with color and form to tease out and celebrate the tension between a painting’s subject and its background. In one of his most famous works, 1963's Red Blue Green, for example, two shapes, one red, one blue, both contrast and resonate with a green background that extends to the edge of the canvas on both sides, appearing at moments to be the work’s primary shape. To explore this relationship between form and ground further, Kelly began using nontraditional, shaped canvases, as in the monochromatic 1966 Yellow Piece, from, whose two curved corners draws the eye to the wall behind it, as though the gallery wall itself were part of the composition. A lithograph from the same period, Blue and Orange consists of two shapes in the title’s complementary colors facing off against one another with a tension that makes them appear almost animated.
Kelly made drawings and prints throughout his career, using plants and flowers as his primary source of inspiration. Like his paintings, his drawings tend to be relatively flat in perspective, but they are rarely abstract. A 1993 drawing of an oak leaf is clearly representational, but rendered with very minimal color and line. In the mid-1960s, he produced the series “Suite of Twenty-Seven Lithographs” with the Paris-based Maeght Éditeur.
Later, collaborating with Gemini G.E.L., he created very large-scale works, such as 1988’s Purple/Red/Gray/Orange, which is 18 feet long and might be one of the biggest lithographs ever made. Kelly produced 140 sculptures, including the aluminum White Curves, created for the Fondation Beyeler, in Riehen, Switzerland, in 2002. In his three-dimensional works, as in his paintings, Kelly used form, color and light to play with perceptions of surface and depth, inviting viewers to look closely and see the world in a new way.
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- Orange and Blue over YellowBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter: Imprimerie Maeght, Levallois-Perret, France Publisher: Maeght Editeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Catalogue raisonné: Axsom 30 Signed and numbered, lower marginCategory
1960s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Leaf IXBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYFramed size: 38 x 50 1/2 inches Printer and Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Catalogues Raisonné: Axsom 174 Signed, titled, and annotated, lower marginCategory
1970s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Red Curve (Radius of 8')By Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYFrame size: 45 1/2 x 36 1/2 inches Printer and Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Catalogue Raisonné: Axsom 106 Signed and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
1970s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Leaf IIBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter and Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Edition size: 20, plus proofs Catalogue Raisonné: Axsom 167Category
1970s Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Leaf VBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter and Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Edition size: 20, plus proofs Catalogue Raisonné: Axsom 170 Signed, numbered, and titled in pencil, lower marginCategory
1970s Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- DaffodilBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYFrame size: 39 3/4 x 31 1/4 inches Printer and Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Signed and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
Early 2000s Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
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21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Prints
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Mid-20th Century Modern Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Composition - Lithograph by U. Mastroianni - 1980sBy Umberto MastroianniLocated in Roma, ITComposition is a contemporary artwork realized by Umberto Mastroianni. Mixed colored litograph. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower left in pencil. Numbered on the lower right in...Category
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MaterialsLithograph
- Saul Steinberg lithographic cover c.1970 (derriere le miroir)By Saul SteinbergLocated in NEW YORK, NYSaul Steinberg Derrière le Miroir: A lithographic cover published c. 1970. Well suited for framing. A fantastic vintage Saul Steinberg collectible within reach. Lithograph in color...Category
1970s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
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1960s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph