Lot 172
  • 172

Ellsworth Kelly

Estimate
800,000 - 1,200,000 USD
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Description

  • Ellsworth Kelly
  • Untitled
  • signed, dated © 1983 and incised with the number EK684 on a plaque affixed to the reverse
  • painted aluminum
  • 52 by 162 by 3 in. 132.1 by 411.5 by 7.62 cm.

Provenance

Blum Helman Gallery, New York
Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf (acquired from the above in 1984)
Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Joe Donnelly, Dublin
Gallery Seomi, Seoul
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, Ellsworth Kelly: Painted Aluminum Wall Sculpture, January - February 1984, cat. no. 2
Malmö Konsthall, To Brancusi, April - May 1994
Seoul, Gallery Hyundai, Ellsworth Kelly, April - May 1996

Literature

Margo Leavin Gallery, Margo Leavin Gallery: 25 Years, Volume I, Los Angeles, 1995, illustrated

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges including scattered light abrasions, a pinpoint area of loss at the right-most tip and very minor areas of loss along the top edge, only visible upon close inspection. There is a 1/4-inch circular area along the bottom edge near the center that has benefitted from retouching.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Ellsworth Kelly has been at the forefront of international post-war art since the fifties. With Abstract Expressionism at its peak and based on the traditions of the abstract avant-garde in a dialogue with Color-Field painting, Kelly developed a vocabulary that left traditional easel painting behind. Moving painting into the sculptural realm and giving it many of the qualities of objecthood, Kelly presaged the arrival of minimalism and its theories of the specific object by a decade. His art demonstrates a profound questioning of the conditions that underlie our perceptions, using found forms and sensations from the outside world to determine his signature abstract vernacular. Kelly has done more than any other artist to explore the relationship between painting and wall, sculpture and space and, importantly, the viewer and the work. Refuting the Greenbergian dogma, Kelly insisted on basing the composition of his forms from life. He saw this as the necessary route to create an unbiased and fully open composition. From his time in Paris to his return to New York found the form pre-made for him in the cityscape. His observation of the play of light cast from a streetlamp cast through a window inspired the composition of his seminal work titled Window. This is indicative of Kelly’s general practice of observing the city around him and finding compositions in the interactions of light and architecture. E.C. Goosen emphasizes this architectural influence: “Thus paintings and collages from 1952 and 1953 that seemingly stem from Neo-Plasticism or De Stijl actually derive from architectural sources predating twentieth-century ‘geometric idealism’ by hundreds if not thousands of years” (Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, Ellsworth Kelly, 1973, p. 46). For Kelly, the whole world becomes a source of already-made compositions. In Untitled one can imagine the sweeping ark to have been inspired by a flash of sunlight as it pierced through a crack in his studio’s window. The visual sensation such already-made compositions imprinted on Kelly is what he sought to recreate in works of art throughout his career. It is not directly obvious what the initial natural stimulus is in many cases, as he typically de-automizes and dislocates this perception into a fully formed autonomous object—an object present in real space just as the initial stimulus was. As art historian Christoph Grunenberg explains, it is this reliance on natural imagery and impressions “rather than being based on the translation of abstract or universal concepts into visual imagery” that makes Kelly so radical an artist (Exh. Cat., Tate St. Ives, Ellsworth Kelly in St. Ives, 2006, p. 18.).

Kelly’s work encourages the viewer to move and change vantage points in order to better understand the work. The use of reliefs and shaped canvases creates a spatial ambiguity, which makes it difficult to comprehend the work at a glance. It requires more considered and varied looking: “I like the frontality of it and the fact that the work changes as you move to one side, it’s no better or worse, just different. A shape can be approached from different angles and different lighting so that new things may happen that weren’t expected” (Ann Hindry, “Conversation with Ellsworth Kelly,” Artstudio, 1992, p. 22). Kelly is extremely aware of how his work will look in a particular space and in particular lighting. The environment is his background, and he wants the viewers to be as aware of this environment as the work themselves. In Untitled, one finds an excellent example of Kelly developing these interests of incorporating the work within the space and vice versa through the use of a reflective coat. Through this simple but innovative change, the viewer becomes part of the work through the reflection and in turn, the architecture becomes absorbed. Fused onto the single plane of Untitled we become more aware of our situation within the work and the surrounding space. The viewer is encouraged to move around and play with the reflection whilst also gaining a greater understanding of the space through the different views in the reflection.

Untitled displays similarities with Calder’s work in its treatment of metal as something delicate and lightweight. The dramatic bending and sculpting of the material belies its great density, making it seem almost like paper. The translation of painting off of the wall and into three-dimensional space was a major breakthrough of Calder’s. The implied movement of the work of both Kelly and Calder stems from the dynamism of the forms used and their juxtaposition in order to cause the viewer to move so as to better ascertain the final form of the object that co-inhabits their space. Kelly was very close with Calder and the relationship had an enormous impact on him. He took Calder’s bold liberation of painting from its wall to create works that were more object like: “From then on, painting as I had known it was finished for me. The new works were to be paintings/objects, unsigned, anonymous" (Paris, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (and travelling), Ellsworth Kelly: The Years in France, 1948–1954, 1992, p. 14). Untitled demonstrates all of these vintage Kelly qualities and yet provides evidence of an artist keen to always improve on his radical redefinition of painting’s relationship to sculpture and architecture. This tireless development and bold commitment to change lies at the very heart of Kelly’s enduring success as a giant of contemporary art for over sixty years and is best exemplified in 1983-made Untitled.