Ellsworth Kelly
1923–2015
Videos
Audio
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Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Green Red, 1964
Stop 803 from Spilling Over
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Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Green Red, 1964
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Narrator: In this painting, Ellsworth Kelly made an abstract painting out of the three hues mixed to produce color television—a recent invention at the time he completed this work.
Darby English: Kelly is looking at the basics of painting making: color relationships, composition, non-composition, and he’s trying to present the basics as the basics that they are—without losing the soul.
Narrator: Art historian Darby English.
Darby English: Imagine being an artist or being someone trying to be an artist and going to a handbook with the basic information about shapes and colors and composition laid out before you, you see a lot of charts, you see a lot of things presented in sequence and in hierarchies, you see a lot of things set into very legible diagrammatic relationships so that, quote, unquote, anyone who comes along and picks it up can learn the principles.
Kelly’s question seems to be, how can I present the basic information in a way that lacks the coldness and the abstractness of a diagram? It’s in a way like teaching without didacticism, if that makes any sense.
Exhibitions
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Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s
Mar 29–Aug 18, 2019
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Where We Are: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1900–1960
Apr 28, 2017–June 2, 2019
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America Is Hard to See
May 1–Sept 27, 2015
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Shaping a Collection: Five Decades of Gifts
July 17–Oct 19, 2014
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American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe
Dec 22, 2012–June 29, 2014
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Whitney Biennial 2012
Mar 1–May 27, 2012
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Full House: Views of the Whitney’s Collection at 75
June 29–Sept 3, 2006
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Overhead/Underfoot: The Topographical Perspective in Photography
June 30–Sept 24, 2005
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Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue
Aug 14–Nov 2, 2003
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An American Legacy, A Gift to New York
Oct 23, 2002–Jan 25, 2003
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The Draftsman's Colors: Fourteen New Acquisitions from Johns to Chong
Mar 2–July 7, 2001
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Highlights from the Permanent Collection: From Pollock to Today
Dec 7, 2000–Feb 10, 2002
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Correspondences: Isamu Noguchi and Ellsworth Kelly
Jan 20–Apr 7, 2000
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Whitney Biennial 1991
Apr 2–June 30, 1991
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Whitney Biennial 1981
Jan 20–Apr 12, 1981
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Whitney Biennial 1979
Feb 6–Apr 1, 1979
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Whitney Biennial 1973: Contemporary American Art
Jan 10–Mar 18, 1973
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1969 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting
Dec 16, 1969–Feb 1, 1970
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1968 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture
Dec 17, 1968–Feb 9, 1969
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1967 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting
Dec 13, 1967–Feb 4, 1968
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Annual Exhibition 1966: Contemporary Sculpture and Prints
Dec 16, 1966–Feb 5, 1967
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1965 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
Dec 8, 1965–Jan 30, 1966
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Annual Exhibition 1963: Contemporary American Painting
Dec 11, 1963–Feb 2, 1964
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Annual Exhibition 1962: Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings
Dec 12, 1962–Feb 3, 1963
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Annual Exhibition 1961: Contemporary American Painting
Dec 13, 1961–Feb 4, 1962
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Annual Exhibition 1960: Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings
Dec 7, 1960–Jan 22, 1961
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1959 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
Dec 9, 1959–Jan 31, 1960