Museum of Modern Art
September 19, 2007–January 21, 2008
This single-gallery installation was devoted to 13 paintings and drawings by Ellsworth Kelly. Three of the paintings were on view for the first time at MoMA and were recent acquisitions:
Relief with Blue(1950), a gift from Donald L. Bryant, Jr., a Museum Trustee;
Dominican (1952), a gift from the artist;
and Two Whites (1959), a gift from James and Kathy Goodman.
In addition to these and other pivotal works from the 1950s, the gallery featured a major work from the 1980s,
Three Panels: Orange, Dark Gray, Green (1986).
Composed of three shaped canvases, it spans 34 feet of the gallery wall.
Over the past five decades, Kelly has redefined abstraction by examining the shapes and colors found in natural and manmade forms, producing a visually and philosophically sophisticated body of work.
Ellsworth Kelly, "Brooklyn Bridge, VII,” 1962, oil on canvas, 7 feet 8 1/8 inches by 37 5/8 inches. Gift of Solomon Byron Smith. ©2007 Ellsworth Kelly
