Ellsworth KellyBlack/Green1970
1970
About the Item
- Creator:Ellsworth Kelly (1923, American)
- Creation Year:1970
- Dimensions:Height: 23.25 in (59.06 cm)Width: 19 in (48.26 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Miami, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU538310489112
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.
Find original Ellsworth Kelly art on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Miami, FL
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Black YellowBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Ellsworth Kelly Black Yellow 1970 - 72 Lithograph 34 x 39 3/4 in. Edition of 55 Pencil signed and numbered Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art ...Category
1970s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Dark Gray and WhiteBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION Ellsworth Kelly Dark Gray and White 1977-1979 Screenprint and collage on handmade paper 29 3/4 x 41 5/8 in. Edition of 41 Pencil Signe...Category
1970s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsHandmade Paper, Screen
- Lavender TriangleBy Charles HinmanLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Charles Hinman Lavender Triangle 2012 4 color screenprint 38 x 38 in. Edition of 15 Pencil signed, dated and numbered Condition: This work is in excellent co...Category
2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Flat Top Pyramid With Colors SuperimposedBy Sol LeWittLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Sol LeWitt Flat Top Pyramid With Colors Superimposed 1988 Silkscreen in Twenty Colors Superimposed 30 x 95 in. Edition of 30 Pencil signed and numbered Accom...Category
1980s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Harvest With Blue Bottom, from Summer Light SeriesBy Robert MotherwellLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Robert Motherwell Harvest With Blue Bottom, from Summer Light Series 1973 Lithograph with collage 36 x 18 in. Edition of 55 Pencil signed and numbered; accomp...Category
1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Mixed Media
- Belle Epine, from Pleni LunaBy Wifredo LamLocated in Miami, FLTECHNICAL INFORMATION: Wilfredo Lam Belle Epine, from Pleni Luna 1974 Lithograph 25 1/2 x 19 3/4 in. Edition of 262 Pencil signed and numbered Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienba...Category
1970s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Dan Flavin, For Circular Fluorescent Light Of One Wall - Signed PrintBy Dan FlavinLocated in Hamburg, DEDan Flavin (American, 1933-1996) For Circular Fluorescent Light Of One Wall, 1974 Medium: Lithograph on wove paper Dimensions: 18.5 x 31.5 cm Edition of 45: Hand-signed, titled and d...Category
20th Century Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Dan Flavin, A Sketch of The Diagonal of May 25, 1963 in Fluorescent LightBy Dan FlavinLocated in Hamburg, DEDan Flavin (American, 1933-1996) A Sketch of The Diagonal of May 25, 1963 in Fluorescent Light, 1974 Medium: Lithograph on wove paper Dimensions: 18.5 x 31.5 cm Edition of 45: Hand-s...Category
20th Century Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Proem 1By Matt MageeLocated in Santa Fe, NMEdition of 15Category
21st Century and Contemporary Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Black/YellowBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter: Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Edition size: 55, plus proofs Catalogue raisonné: Axsom 83 Signed and numbered, lower marginCategory
1970s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- "Significant Abstract of Form M.F.A, /92/F" - Minimalist PrintLocated in Houston, TXElongated forms become seed-like, with glowing energy of life at the center. We are reminded of the interactions in nature, that all things are constantly changing, rising and fallin...Category
1990s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Three Horses, Abstract Lithograph by Robert Arthur GoodnoughBy Robert Arthur GoodnoughLocated in Long Island City, NYThree Horses Robert Goodnough, American (1917–2010) Date: 1961 Lithograph, signed, numbered, dated and titled in pencil Edition of AP Image Size: 11.25 x ...Category
1960s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph