Ellsworth Kelly. Shapes and Colors, 1949–2015

Celebrating the centenary of Ellsworth Kelly’s birth (1923–2015), Fondation Louis Vuitton is hosting a major new retrospective of the artist’s work featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs and drawings. Ellsworth Kelly. Shapes and Colors, 1949–2015, organized with Glenstone Museum (Potomac, Maryland) and in collaboration with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio, is the first exhibition in France to offer a broad overview of the work of this significant artist of the second half of the 20th century—both in terms of its chronology and the media on display. The exhibition brings together more than 100 works on loan from both international institutions (the Art Institute of Chicago, Kröller-Müller Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate, Whitney Museum) and private collections.

Ellsworth Kelly is regarded as one of the most significant American abstract painters and sculptors. His career, which spanned seven decades, was marked by his artistic independence from any school or movement, and by his groundbreaking contributions to 20th century painting and sculpture.

Kelly drew inspiration from nature and the world around him to create a singular style which revitalized abstraction in the 20th and 21st centuries. Ten years after his passing, his works still elicit the same fascination, well beyond the habitual boundaries of painting. Fondation Louis Vuitton has the opportunity to witness this every day: its Auditorium houses the final work ever to have been commissioned from the artist.

The exhibition Ellsworth Kelly. Shapes and Colors, 1949–2015 traces the artist’s exploration of the relationship between shape, color, line and space through key works from pivotal periods in his career. The range of works, presented on two floors of the building and across nearly 1,500 square meters, urges the viewer to overlook the deceptive simplicity of Kelly’s artistic vocabulary and to appreciate a body of works that features surprising vitality and richness. Often monochrome, and seemingly rigid in their composition, these works do not emerge from a system or adhere to particular rules. They are the result of a visual quest in which shapes and color go hand in hand with hedonism.

The exhibited works cover the wide range of media used by the artist: from painting, sculpture to works on paper, collage and photography. Exhibition highlights include paintings from the artist’s youth, such as Tableau Vert (1952)—the first monochrome made after Ellsworth Kelly’s visit to Giverny—or Painting in Three Panels (1956), a key example of the painter’s commitment to architecture. These early works are followed by examples from the now canonical Chatham and Spectrum series. A selection of drawings of plants created throughout the artist’s career, as well as a collection of rarely exhibited photographs are also prominently featured in the exhibition.

Striking works in the exhibition include Yellow Curve (1990), the first in a series of large-scale floor paintings by Ellsworth Kelly, displayed in a space conceived specifically for the work. The installation, which extends over more than 60 square meters, is the first presentation in Europe of Yellow Curve since its creation in 1990 for an exhibition in Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Another monumental work, one that is on permanent display in Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Auditorium, is the commission completed in 2014 by Ellsworth Kelly. Designed in a dialogue with the elements of Frank Gehry’s architecture, the installation extends from the stage curtain (Spectrum VIII) to the walls of the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Auditorium, which are lifted and animated by a series of red, yellow, blue, green and violet monochromes. 

The exhibition Ellsworth Kelly. Shapes and Colors, 1949–2015 is organized with Glenstone Museum (Potomac, Maryland) in collaboration with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio in the context of “Ellsworth Kelly at 100”.