Ellsworth KellyLeaf V1978
1978
About the Item
- Creator:Ellsworth Kelly (1923, American)
- Creation Year:1978
- Dimensions:Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 42 in (106.68 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU7911992222
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: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- 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
- 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
- Wild Grape LeafBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter and Publisher: Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford, New York Signed and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
1970s Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Dracena IIBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter: Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles Publisher: Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles Catalogue raisonné: Axsom 213 Edition size: 30, plus proofs Signed and numbered in pencil, lower rightCategory
1980s Minimalist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Pear IIIBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYSheet size: 35 7/16 x 24 3/4 inches Frame size: 43 3/4 x 32 3/4 inches Printer: Imprimerie Arte, Paris Publisher: Maeght Éditeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Catalogue Raison...Category
1960s Minimalist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Leaf IBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPortfolio: Twelve Leaves Printer and Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Edition size: 20, plus proofs Signed, titled, and numbered in pencil, lower rightCategory
1970s Contemporary Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- MIGHTY TREE II Signed Lithograph, Realistic Tree Drawing, Surrealist StyleBy Hanna KayLocated in Union City, NJMIGHTY TREE II is an original limited edition lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) using traditional hand lithography techniques on archival Arches buff colored paper, 100% acid free. MIGHTY TREE II is a realistic tree drawing expressed as a three panel, horizontally placed composition printed in dark brown gray and pale green ink from a hand drawn lithography stone. The tree is meticulously drawn using highly detailed pencil markings which create the intricate foliage crown, massive trunk, and multi-fingered roots. MIGHTY TREE II is truly an imaginative, surrealist style triptych drawing of an uprooted age-old tree existing from another time. Superb quality, hand crafted original lithograph, very fine impression. Print size - 20.5 x 30 inches, unframed, very good condition, light handling, printer registration pin holes on left and right margin, pencil signed by Hanna Kay...Category
1970s Surrealist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- SURVIVOR TREE Signed Lithograph, Surreal Tree Drawing, Botanical FantasyBy Hanna KayLocated in Union City, NJSURVIVOR TREE is an original, hand drawn limited edition lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) printed in khaki grey ink using traditional hand lithography techniques on white archival printmaking paper 100% acid free. SURVIVOR TREE is a botanical fantasy portrait depicting a meticulously drawn tree with roots clinging to a circular platform suspended in the air. SURVIVOR TREE is expressed with highly detailed pencil markings that create the intricate foliage crown, massive trunk, and multi-fingered roots. SURVIVOR TREE is truly an imaginative, surreal tree portrait drawing of a mysterious lone tree surviving in time and space . Superb quality, hand crafted original lithograph, very fine impression. Print size - 23 x 28.5 inches, unframed, excellent condition, pencil signed by Hanna Kay...Category
1970s Surrealist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Fantaisies Oceanographiques No.20Located in Bristol, CTColourful pochoir No.20. by E.H Raskin Published 1926 by F Dumas Editeur, Paris Image Sz: 13 3/4"H x 9 1/4"W Frame Sz: 18"H x 14"WCategory
1920s Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Fantaisies Oceanographiques 6Located in Bristol, CTColour pochoir by E.H. Raskin From the folio Fantaisies Oceanographiques Published in Paris 1926 Art Sz: 14"H x 10"W Frame Sz: 18"H...Category
1920s Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- French Modernist Mourlot Lithograph Vintage Air France Poster Roger BezombesBy Roger BezombesLocated in Surfside, FLVintage French Travel Poster, Air france Roger Bezombes (1913-1994) French Bezombes was a painter, sculptor, medalist, and designer. He studied in Paris, at the École des Beaux-Arts, and was much influenced by his friendship with Maurice Denis. Heavily influenced by surrealism, He worked principally as a painter, adopting the saturated Fauvist colors of Henri Matisse in landscapes and figure studies often based on observation of “exotic” cultures, notably Mediterranean and North African. Constrained, because a very young orphan, to all kinds of professions which provide him with the material means to devote himself to painting - he participated in 1930 in the installation of the exhibition of the Bauhaus at the Grand Palais-, Roger Bezombes is student of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. (Ecole des Beaux Artes) He was trained in the art of fresco by Paul Baudoüin, René Barotte nonetheless restores that the young man's preference goes to the practice of "truancy" which he uses to make copies at the Louvre Museum. It’s the time when Paul Gauguin’s paintings, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse are revealed to him by Maurice Denis with whom he will remain close until his accidental death, painting him on his funeral bed on November 14, 1943. He executed surrealist tapestry designs for Aubusson and Gobelin tapestries, posters (winning the Grand Prix de l'Affiche Francaise in 1984), costumes and sets for ballets at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, reliefs and murals. In 1965 he took up medal-making, expressing in his numerous metallic works for the Paris Mint that obsession with found objects which is also evident in his large-scale sculpture and in his posters. He designed posters for Air France and for the French national railways. Roger Bezombes went to Africa for the first time in 1936 thanks to a travel grant and received the same year the second grand prize of Rome . In 1937 he traveled around Morocco where he became friends with Albert Camus. The year 1938 offered him both his first solo exhibition at the Charpentier gallery in Paris with paintings and gouaches on the theme of Morocco and the attribution of the national grand prize for the arts, earning him a great journey which , from Dakar to Algiers , takes it through Chad , Tamanrasset and Hoggar. Roger Bezombes became a professor at the Julian Academy in 1950. For him, 1951 was the year of a trip to Greece and the year where he began his relationship with tapestry work. Roger Bezombes visited Israel in 1953, Tunisia and Egypt in 1954. He was appointed official painter of the Navy in 1955. Pierre Mazars analyzes that “after a period where we notice the influence of Van Gogh and GeorgesBraque, particularly in his landscapes of Provence, he came to a more schematic writing, the colored spots and the thicknesses of material taking more of importance as the subject. He even performed composite works, half-watercolors, half-pasted papers, in which he incorporated pieces of newspapers”. He was elected titular to the Academy of Overseas Sciences in 1978. "The range of Bezombes' talent forms is remarkable,” writes Lynne Thornton, “ranging from paintings, murals, travel posters, tapestry cartons, book illustrations, monumental ceramic decorations, ballet and theater sets, totem sculptures, sculpture objects, jewelry and medallions”. He was part of the mid century mod School of Paris that included Leon Zack, Bernard Lorjou, Paul Augustin Aizpiri, Gabriel Godard, Michel Henry, Hans Erni, Bengt Lindstrom, Alfred Manessier, Andre Hambourg, Raymond Legueult and Jean Rigaud. Select Solo Exhibitions: 1938: Galerie Charpentier, Paris 1950, '53, '55, '57: Galerie Andre Weil, Paris 1953:Wildenstein Gallery, London 1954: Institut Francais, Cologne 1956: Galerie Matarasso, Nice 1957: Horn Gallery, Luxembourg; Guilde de la Gravure, Paris 1958: Denys-Puech Museum, Rodez 1962: Musee de l'Athenee, Geneva; Chateau Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer 1966: Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice 1967: Galerie Martel, Montreal 1968: Romanet-Vercel Gallery, New York; Reattu Museum, Arles; Le Corbusier Center, Firminy 1969: Galerie Philippe...Category
1980s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Place and Surface diptychLocated in Deddington, GBPlace and Surface diptych Overall mount size cm : H86 x W66 Place by Venetia Norris Limited edition of 10, signed and numbered by artist (5 complete sets) Hand finished using acry...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Lithograph