The Ellsworth Kelly paradox

About the exhibition “Ellsworth Kelly. Forms and Colors, 1949-2015” visible at the Louis Vuitton Foundation until September 9.

Shapes and colors to fill the eyes and the picture rails: the formula is always a hit at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Celebration of the centenary of the birth of the artist, “Ellsworth Kelly. Forms and Colors, 1949-2015” is the first exhibition in France to approach in such a broad manner the work of this essential creator of the second half of the 20th century, both in terms of its chronology and the techniques it brings together. Even if it has to make do with two floors and be limited to around a hundred works to share space with the exhibition “Henri Matisse: l'Atelier rouge”, presented simultaneously by the Foundation, and devoted to the history of this famous masterpiece from 1911, one of the emblematic works of MoMA since its acquisition in 1949, which is obviously not there by chance, as we will see.

If the works of art for sale by the abstract painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly are still omnipresent on the https://www.moma.org/, reaching millionaire auctions, even though the artist was born in 1923 and death in 2015, they are legion. In almost seventy years of career, Kelly has indeed produced with a vengeance... and his popularity has never stopped rising, especially on the American market. Devoting a very comprehensive article to him in the June issue of Connaissance des arts, Jean-François Lasnier recalls the recent record reached by the oil on canvas Red Curve VII from 1982, which was sold in 2019 for nearly ten million dollars , even if Kelly's paintings are more generally sold between two and five million, and his lithographs circulate between five thousand and ten thousand dollars, like some of his drawings... some of which have still sold for more than a hundred thousand dollars .

In short, wealthy collectors and art galleries are snapping it up. However, I cannot help but think that this phenomenal success on the contemporary art market is surely not unrelated to the fact that Ellsworth Kelly is considered one of the most important American abstract painters and sculptors. Because as far as I'm concerned, I still have trouble understanding what's really exceptional about him compared to others... Certainly, his career is marked by the independence of his art in relation to any school or artistic movement, and by his innovative contribution to 20th century painting and sculpture. But like Kelly, Piet Mondrian uses simple geometric shapes and primary colors, although Kelly's pared-back compositions are distinguished by a freer use of shapes and an absence of Mondrian's characteristic rigid grid. Kelly's work also recalls the suprematism of Kasimir Malevich, a pioneer of https://www.moma.org/ who explored similar concepts of purity of form and color. As a member of Abstract Expressionism, Barnett Newman also used large areas of color and simple shapes. His color field painting works can therefore be compared with those of Kelly in view of the emphasis placed on color and formal simplicity. Kelly can also be compared to minimalist artists like Donald Judd, whose artwork, while more sculptural, shares an aesthetic of simple forms and repetition that can be seen in Kelly's paintings and sculptures. Finally, and this explains the parallel exhibition wanted by the Louis Vuitton Foundation which I spoke to you about above, we should not forget that Kelly was influenced by Matisse, in particular by his late cut-outs.

Far from me therefore the idea of ​​calling into question the importance of Kelly's work, obviously, but I still wanted to list these associations to put this exhibition event into perspective by showing that his work is part of a broader dialogue with art history. Although, granted, he made his own contribution to abstraction and modern art. Organized with the Glenstone Museum (Potomac, Maryland) in collaboration with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio, the exhibition brings together more than a hundred pieces, paintings, sculptures but also drawings, photographs and collages. And benefits from loans from international institutions (Art Institute of Chicago, Kröller-Müller Museum, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate, Whitney Museum) and private collections.

This retrospective was in any case eagerly awaited in the world of modern and contemporary art, because since 1992 and the exhibition on his French years, Kelly had not been entitled to any large-scale retrospective in France. A country where the young American had nevertheless chosen to settle in 1948 when Abstract Expressionism was soon in full swing in his country. There he will meet Jean Arp and Constantin Brancusi, Francis Picabia and Georges Vantongerloo. And it was there that in 1949 he definitively abandoned figurative painting. To choose freedom. Because as Jean-François Lasnier writes, “Ellsworth Kelly is a paradoxical artist. His stubborn exploration of the relationship between form and color gave birth to a work that is simultaneously ascetic and hedonistic, resolutely non-figurative but haunted by reality.

Personally, I have trouble spotting ghosts, but I can't rule out the possibility of having been blocked as the artist's vision seems impersonal to me. This extreme simplification of the painting leaves me cold. The journalist also agrees: “Depending on the point of view, we will find these works ascetic or frankly arid”. I actually have the impression that placed side by side, all these smooth colors are equal, and I am the first to regret not feeling anything. Fortunately there are curves. And there, sometimes, yes, it vibrates. Phew.

Article written by Valibri in Roulotte

Visual: ELLSWORTH KELLY. SHAPES AND COLORS, 1949-2015