{"data":{"id":"2423","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":2423,"topgoose_id":10912,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":2423,"title":"Atlantic","display_artist_text":"Ellsworth Kelly","display_date":"1956","accession_number":"57.9a-b","dimensions":"Overall: 80 1/8 × 114 5/16 in. (203.5 × 290.4 cm)","medium":"Oil on canvas, two parts","department":"collection","classification":"Paintings","credit_line":"Purchase","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eEllsworth Kelly, \u003cem\u003eAtlantic\u003c/em\u003e, 1956. Oil on canvas, two parts, overall: 80 1/8 × 114 5/16 in. (203.5 × 290.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase 57.9a-b. © Ellsworth Kelly\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eEllsworth Kelly’s massively scaled geometric abstractions are often grounded in something actually seen. \u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c/i\u003e derives its abstracted curves from shadows cast across the pages of a book that Ellsworth Kelly was reading while riding a bus. The facing pages of the book and its central fold are mirrored in the painting’s diptych structure, while the shadows themselves are reversed in his black-and-white scheme (so that the shadow actually appears as white, on a black ground). Kelly first translated the shadow, curved by the bowing of the book, into a group of drawings in 1954, then into a smaller painting, \u003ci\u003eStudy for Atlantic\u003c/i\u003e (1956), and finally into the grand scale of \u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c/i\u003e—more than 9 feet wide. \u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c/i\u003e is also the largest of Kelly’s black-and-white canvases of the late 1950s, made just before he reintroduced a wide spectrum of colors into his work. \u003ci\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Black background with two large, curved white shapes meeting at the center, creating a symmetrical design.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T16:38:25.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:00:34.067-05:00","images":[{"id":94070,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/2423/57_9a-b_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"688","type":"artist"}]}}}}