Ellsworth Kelly
dal 22/5/2013 al 7/9/2013
Segnalato da
22/5/2013
Ellsworth Kelly
The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA, New York
Chatham Series. In celebration of Ellsworth Kellys 90th birthday an exhibition that reunites, for the first time in 40 years, the first series of paintings the artist made after leaving New York City for Spencertown, in upstate New York, in 1970.
In celebration of Ellsworth Kelly’s 90th birthday, The
Museum of Modern Art presents Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series, an exhibition that
reunites, for the first time in 40 years, the first series of paintings the artist made after
leaving New York City for Spencertown, in upstate New York, in 1970. On view from May
23 through September 8, 2013, the exhibition is organized by Ann Temkin, the Marie-
Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern
Art.
After working for about a year in a studio he found in the nearby town of Chatham,
Kelly (American, b. 1923) embarked upon an ambitious series of 14 paintings that he
would name for the town. Each of the works in the Chatham Series takes the form of an
inverted ell made of two joined canvases, each a different color: black, white, red,
yellow, blue, or green. These compositions grew from an intuitive process rather than a
system: the final paintings are based on studies Kelly made by manipulating paired
pieces of colored paper, adjusting the colors and their proportions until he was pleased.
By the time he created the Chatham Series, Kelly was well established as an artist.
Born in Newburgh, New York, and trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, he first developed his abstract vocabulary of line, form, and color while living
and working in Paris, from 1948 to 1954. Resolving to make what he described as
“anonymous” work, Kelly aimed to suppress the presence of personal painterly gesture
in his canvases. During this formative period Kelly began to explore the joining of
monochrome expanses together to create multipanel works, an approach that has
endured throughout his career.
The Chatham Series was first exhibited at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, in
1972, one year after the series' completion. At the close of that exhibition, the 14
paintings went their separate ways. Reuniting this landmark series for the first time
provides a welcome opportunity to revisit a key moment in Kelly’s artistic development.
SPONSORSHIP:
The exhibition is supported by BNP Paribas.
Additional support for the accompanying publication is provided by Agnes Gund.
PUBLICATION:
Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series illustrates the complete group of paintings and includes
an essay by Ann Temkin, the Museum’s Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of
Painting and Sculpture, that provides an in-depth look at this significant period in Kelly’s
work.
72 pages, 30 illustrations. $22.95, hardcover. 9.5 x 11". Published by The Museum of
Modern Art and available at the MoMA Stores and online at MoMAStore.org. Distributed
to the trade through ARTBOOK|D.A.P. in the United States and Canada, and through
Thames & Hudson outside the United States and Canada.
Press Contact: Margaret Doyle, (212) 408-6400, margaret_doyle@moma.org
For downloadable high-resolution images, register at MoMA.org/press.
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