Opening Reception - Ellsworth Kelly: Black and White

Ellsworth Kelly described black and white as “the complete absence of color and the totality of light,” the contrast of which allowed for a pure investigation of form.

The earliest work in the exhibition, White, Two Blacks (1953), is an example of the artist’s multi-panel paintings in which monochrome canvases are joined end to end. Another work on view, Study for Atlantic (1956), inspired by the shadows cast across pages of a book Kelly was reading while riding on a bus, is composed of two canvases each of which depict a white form against a black ground. Other works in the exhibition include shaped canvases and relief paintings, created by superimposing one canvas on top of another, and sculptures in bronze and aluminum. The latest work in the exhibition, a painted aluminum relief from 2012, has a reflective white surface in contrast to the matte canvases of the paintings. Together these works reflect Kelly’s rigorous, lifelong investigation of line, form, and color.

Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) is one of the preeminent artists of our time. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions at museums around the world. Most recently, Ellsworth Kelly at 100, a major survey of the artist’s work charting his career and contributions to American abstraction, was organized by Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland. The exhibition traveled to the Fondation Luis Vuitton, Paris, earlier this year and is currently on view at M7 in Doha, Qatar.