In this triptych Kelly has choreographed three shaped canvases into a subtle dance of color and form. A dynamic rhythm is created by the contrast between triangular and trapezoidal forms, the irregular spacing and positioning of the shapes, and the play of curved and straight edges.
In 1991 Kelly reflected on his shaped canvases: "When you make a line or mark on a panel, you are involved in depiction, and what I wanted expressed was the form of the painting itself . . . the wall became the ground and the panels became the marks on the wall." These highly saturated monochromatic panels revise the traditional relationship between figure and ground and blur the distinction between painting and sculpture by simultaneously invoking qualities associated with both
Focus: Ellsworth Kelly, 2007.
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Ellsworth Kelly
American, 1923–2015 338 works onlineIn 1951, the 28-year-old artist Ellsworth Kelly submitted a grant to the Guggenheim Foundation, proposing “an alphabet of plastic pictorial elements, aiming to establish a new scale of painting, a closer contact between the artist and the wall, providing a way for painting to accompany modern architecture.
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