Ellsworth Kelly
dal 19/7/2000 al 10/9/2000
Segnalato da
19/7/2000
Ellsworth Kelly
Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn
The Early Drawings 1948-1955 - The American artist Ellsworth Kelly (*1923) is without doubt considered one of the most important representatives of international postwar art. At the height of Abstract Expressionism, from which Kelly - with his anonymous images - always kept his distance, he developed a vocabulary of forms that was as clear as it was simple.
The American artist Ellsworth Kelly (*1923) is
without doubt considered one of the most
important representatives of international
postwar art. At the height of Abstract
Expressionism, from which Kelly - with his
anonymous images - always kept his
distance, he developed a vocabulary of forms
that was as clear as it was simple. He bade
farewell to the easel painting and, at the
same time, opened up new prospects for
color painting.
The basis for his artistic production, which
ensured his later reputation, was laid down
during his 7-year stay in Paris. In 1948
Ellsworth Kelly went to the French capital and
became acquainted with the art of classical
modernism and many of its protagonists.
Between the two force fields of an assumedly
independent American art and the work of
Claude Monet, Constantin Brancusi and
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, etc., he discovered the
four essential principles for his future pictorial
objects: the adoption of forms found in reality,
the principle of the random distribution of
picture elements, the modular grid and the
monochrome.
By recourse to a store of over 200 drawings -
mostly belonging to the artist himself and, in
part, publically on display for the first time -
the almost inestimable significance of
Ellsworth Kelly's works on paper becomes
clear. As if casting a glance into the artist's
studio, the viewer - with the help of the
manifold pencil drawings, color collages and
studies - can, within a short historical period
of time, review a decisive revolution in
postwar art.
The exhibition is being organized together
with the Harvard University Art Museums in
Cambridge, Massachusetts and the
Kunstmuseum in Winterthur. It is respectively
sponsored by the Douglas S. Cramer
Foundation, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro
as well as Emily Rauh Pulitzer.
A bilingual catalogue will be published with a
text by Yves-Alain Bois with 185 color
reproductions, which will be available during
the exhibition at the price of DM 58,-. In
addition, the art book "Line Form Color",
published by Richter Verlag (80 color pages
+ an attendant booklet with a text by Harry
Cooper in a slipcase), can be purchased for
DM 68,- at the museum bookshop König.
Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10 to 6 pm
Wednesday: 10 to 9 pm
Closed on monday, 24, 25 and 31 of December
1999. Open on 1 November 1999 and 1 January 2000.