Safran

de Niverville 1 Barbara Safran de Niverville Professor Stuart Steck Faculty Advisor 15 March 2012 Surface, Space and Color: Two Works by Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kellys works resonate with elegance, refinement and simplicity. Recently I visited an extraordinary exhibition of nineteen of Kellys thirty wood sculptures, on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,1 which was like finding . . . some profound silence amid the hubbub of daily urban life. . .(Plagens). The subtle shape, the natural wood grain and the transparency of cast shadows elicited the quiet contemplation of Concorde Relief II, a relatively small wall relief in the exhibition. In another gallery of the museum, I viewed a different work by Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Green Yellow Orange Red, an engaging painting composed of five canvas panels, offering a simplified spectrum of pure, electric color. At first glance, these two pieces appeared to be vastly different from one another, but upon closer consideration, several of Kellys life-long artistic concerns were evident in both. Although the wood sculptures have impressed me as the most captivating of Ellsworth Kellys artistic range, he is known primarily for . . . his mature work with flat, carefully shaped planes of rich, un-modulated color, each plane placed subtly in relation to another (Smee). Kellys experiments with chance color arrangements in the 1950s led him to use the color spectrum as a source for subsequent works. In a 2009 interview, he stated, I wanted to show how any color goes with any other color. Above all, I wanted to learn about 1 Ellsworth Kelly: Wood Sculpture. Foster Gallery 158. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, September 18, 2011- March 4, 2012

Safran de Niverville 2 color relationships. . . My idea of using color at its full intensity. . . hasnt changed in the sixty years that Ive been painting (Grunenberg). What interests me in Kellys Blue Green Orange Yellow Red (1968) is the use of trapezoidal panels along with the skillful handling of vibrant color. From my own experience as an artist, I know how challenging it can be to work with vivid hues placed side by side, where they can vie for the viewers attention in an unpleasant visual cacophony of intensity. Kellys huge piece is refreshing to look at, showing us the cheerful expanse of an elemental spectrum. 10 feet high on its left vertical side, it extends 22 feet 7 inches across the wall, then tapers to a height of 3 feet 4 inches on its right side. The five canvas trapezoidal panels form one image, fitting together from the largest blue panel to the smallest red one, suggesting a series of rectangular windows seen at an oblique angle, in perspective. Kelly treats the surface of each one with a seamless application of its particular hue, applied in multiple layers of oil color (Vogel). It appears that Kelly has observed his previous Blue Green Yellow Orange Red of 19662 at an extreme angle as the starting point for the 1968 version and then later, in 1978, he has come back to use the trapezoidal shape again in the wall-mounted wood sculpture, Concorde Relief II. In spite of its simple design and modest size, 18 x 9 x 3 inches, Concorde Relief II (1978) held my attention far longer than many other works in the Museum of Fine Arts. Consisting of two slabs of smooth walnut, one rectangle forms the base for the second 2 This 1966 painting in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, is composed of five rectangular panels of oil on canvas (5 feet x 19 feet 5 inches), painted in the same color sequence in similar, if not identical, hues.

Safran de Niverville 3 shape, the shorter and slightly wider trapezoid, which exceeds the rectangle just enough to interrupt its regularity. Here the trapezoid exists in its flat form, without the illusion of perspective or alternative planes in space, as in Blue Green Yellow Orange Red (1968). Instead of the colored treatment typical of Kellys other, better-known reliefs, the warm- toned walnut is lightly finished, with the gentle striations and concentric curves of the grain forming the only decorative surface pattern on the piece. The curator of the MFA exhibition, Edward Saywell has commented, The wood grain is almost a found drawing in these pieces, a magical form of calligraphy (Loos 2). Under multiple overhead spotlights, the intersecting shadows cast on the base slab and on the wall form a remarkable counter- point to the solidity and richness of the wood. Ellsworth Kelly began using wood panels as early as 19493. He intended most to be hung as paintings, but a few were more sculptural, such as Relief With Blue (1950) and White Plaque (1952-55). Kelly created a collage study for White Plaque while in Paris, after observing the arched tunnels under the Pont de la Tournelle. The rounded, black underside of the arch became a negative space, as the dark semi-circle in turn reflected upwards in the water (Richardson, 9 11). Kelly has continued observing the visible and reducing it to essential forms in his work throughout his career, an . . . abstraction through observation of natural phenomena in the territory between painting and sculpture. . .(Donegan 94). Although some obvious differences exist between a relief sculpture and a painting, in considering Concorde Relief II (1978) and Blue Green Yellow Orange Red (1968) several common principles seem to have guided their execution: trapezoidal shapes, spatial 3 Kellys earliest wood sculptures date from 1958 and continue periodically until 1996. (Richardson 18)

Safran de Niverville 4 relations inside and outside of the work and emphasis on format through the use of flat surface treatments. The trapezoid adds interest and excitement to the structure of the works and energizes the space around each piece. The off-kilter rectangle becomes the trapezoid of Concorde Relief II, animating what could have been a very static piece. Its integral, cast shadows activate the space it occupies. The trapezium-shaped4 panels of Blue Green Yellow Orange Red (1968) add the dynamic illusion of perspective on a spatial plane independent of the wall. In addition, the flat surfaces of each work bring our attention to the outer dimensions of the forms. The natural walnut wood grain of Concorde Relief II adds a subtle textural element to the surface, which supports the impact of the pieces solid panels. Blue Green Yellow Orange Red (1968) employs strong hues to emphasize its structure. The texture of the layered paint on the canvases becomes a rich synthesis with each panels surface, while the different colors charge each other in contrasting vibrancy. As an artist, I find Ellsworth Kellys body of work to be an invigorating reference source for abstraction through the observation of natural forms, the blurring of distinctions between painting and sculpture and the use of relief panels in refined sculptural and color relationships. Perhaps it is the calm, yet vivid simplicity in Kellys work that I find so appealing. Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art has said of Ellsworth Kelly, Hes the last artist to repeat himself. . . But he always comes back to his basic vocabulary: surface, scale, color, image. And he always gets it as simple as he can (Vogel). 4 Trapezium. Def. 1a. Mirriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2007. Print.

Safran de Niverville 5 WORKS CITED Donegan, Cheryl. "Ellsworth Kelly: Paris/New York, 1949-1959: Philadelphia Museum Of Art." Modern Painters 19.7 (2007): 94-95. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 29 Feb. 2012. Grunenberg, Christoph. Sixty Years at Full Intensity. Tate Etc.:Europes Largest Art Magazine. Issue 16/Summer 2009. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue16/colourchart1.htm> Kelly, Ellsworth. Blue Green Yellow Orange Red, 1966. Oil on canvas, five panels, 5 x 19 12 (152.4 x 609.6 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Collection Online. Web. 1 March 2012. ---. Blue Green Yellow Orange Red. 1968. Oil on canvas. 10 > 3 4 x 22 7. Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Ellsworth Kelly by John Coplans. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1973. Plate 213. Print. ---. Concorde Relief II. 1978. Private Collection. Ellsworth Kelly, Wood Sculpture by Brenda Richardson. Boston: MFA Publications. 2011. Plate 9. Print. ---. Relief With Blue. 1950. Oil on wood. 44 x 17 . Museum of Modern Art. ARTstor. Web. 1 March 2012. ---. White Plaque: Bridge Arch and Reflection.1952-55. 64 x 47 Museum of Modern Art. ARTstor. Web. 1 March 2012. Loos, Ted. Seeking Calligraphy in the Grain. New York Times: Art & Design. Nov. 23, 2011. Web. 1 March 2012. Plagens, Peter. Beautiful, Quiet and Spare. Wall Street Journal: Arts and Entertainment. October 6, 2011. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

Safran de Niverville 6 Richardson, Brenda. Ellsworth Kelly, Wood Sculpture. Boston: MFA Publications. 2011. Print. Smee, Sebastian. Totems of Tempered Grandeur: Kelly Conjures Abstraction from the Natural World. Boston Globe. September 25, 2011. Web. 1 March 2012. Vogel, Carol. True to His Abstraction. New York Times: Art and Design. January 20, 2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

Safran de Niverville 7 CONCORDE RELIEF II & BLUE GREEN YELLOW ORANGE RED

Ellsworth Kelly. Concorde Relief II. 1978. Walnut. 18 x 9 x 3. Private Collection. Personal photo. (Do not reproduce, as requested by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)

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Ellsworth Kelly. Blue Green Yellow Orange Red. 1968. Oil on canvas. 10 > 3 4 x 22 7. Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Personal Photo.