Ellsworth Kelly at SLAM
Ken, the docent, and part of Spectrum II, Kelly, 1966-67 || Photos by Abril Warner unless otherwise stated.
On Tuesday, January 30, 2024, we attended the Capturing Color: Young Friends Event at the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM). The evening included refreshments and docent-led tours of SLAM’s latest acquisitions of works by Ellsworth Kelly. Our group had fewer than ten people, and our docent, named Ken, was well-informed and curious about the works he discussed with us.
SLAM’s exhibition of American artist Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) runs through April 7, 2024. The works span decades and they include drawings, prints, paintings, and sculpture. Artwork is not just subject matter caught within the canvas or matted edges. Ellsworth Kelly expects the integral whole to be considered. For example, in addition to the vast plane of the canvas surface, the art object also includes the shadows cast by the light and the edges of the work bending away from or toward the wall.
Not pictured here, the pencil drawings and prints begin to reveal the way Kelly saw things. In his contour line drawings of plants we see how sensitive observation lead to careful, delicate linework. The same faithful curve of a leaf is echoed in the very slight bend of a shape’s printed edge, consider the work on display at SLAM, Untitled (Red), from “The Mallarmé Suite”, 1992.
This slight curvature that tricks the eye into disbelieving what it sees, is also effectively on display in Purple Panel, 1988. At a quick and dismissive glance, it is a flat, purple, triangle hanging on an otherwise empty wall. Ellsworth Kelly’s work is deceptively easy, but offers a more stimulating experience to those who really look. The purple is profound which is difficult for many to perceive. The form is triangular, but it pulls away from the wall and curves at its perimeter so it cannot be a flat triangle.
Purple Panel, Kelly, 1988
Perhaps the most eye-grabbing moment of the tour was the viewing of Spectrum II, 1966-1967. This work comprises of a twenty-two foot long polyptych of thirteen individual panels each of a solid color that form a logical color scale. This scale starts, moving from left to right, with a cool yellow stepping toward a violet and ending with a warm yellow. These are masterfully painted with incredible skill and color sensitivity.
Spectrum II, Kelly, 1966-67 | Image from SLAM.
We were grateful to enjoy an intimate evening with like-minded art lovers. We hope the following images with Ken, our docent, and Elise, our friend, will give you a sense of the scale of Ellsworth Kelly’s paintings. And most of all we hope you visit the exhibition, nothing beats the first-hand experience. The Saint Louis Art Museum’s exhibition of artist Ellsworth Kelly runs through April 7, 2024.
Ken, the docent
Elise Clements and Ken, the docent