Ellsworth Kelly

As an American abstract painter and sculptor, Ellsworth Kelly takes forms encountered in everyday life and nature as the starting point for a body of work that recreates them rather than inventing them. A fold in a cigarette packet or the outline of a vine leaf can thus become compositions to be transposed exactly, without addition. His visual language develops around monochrome, multiple panels and integral forms, as well as chance and seriality. Green Angle (1970), one of his first works on a single panel, and Spectrum IX (2014), an acrylic painting on canvas made up of twelve assembled panels, illustrate two configurations of his work.

Born in Newburgh in 1923 and died in Spencertown in 2015, Kelly began studying art in New York in 1941; his studies were interrupted by the war. After serving in the US Army, he studied in Boston from 1946 to 1948, then left for France and settled in Paris until 1954. There he discovered a wide range of classical and modern art.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York organised his first retrospective in 1973. Exhibitions of his work were subsequently presented at, among other institutions, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2000, Kelly received the Praemium Imperiale in the painting category. The Broad holds several of his works, including Green Blue Red, Green Relief with Blue and Green Angle.

Works recorded at auction

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Lot 208

Stillleben mit Glacecoup, 2000

Pencil and watercolour on paper

Original catalogue wording

Stillleben mit Glacecoup, 2000
Bleistift und Aquarell auf Papier

Catalogue period : 2021-09-29

Published result : 12154 CHF

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : CHF 10000–15000

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Kornfeld · Lot 574

Plant Drawing

Pencil on heavy wove paper

Date to be documented

Published result : 24000 CHF

Hammer price, excluding fees

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