Ellsworth KellyRed Curve. (For Joel). 1988

Reference: Axson - Ellsworth Kelly Prints no 269.

Gemini Studio prints no 1582.

Provenance: U.S. Private Collection.

Superb impression with brilliant colour and in pristine condition. On cream Arches paper. Composition worked to full sheet size: 560 x 410mm.

Ellsworth Kelly is now considered one of the very greatest exponents of hard-edge colour abstraction in the development of American art in the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s. He had his first major US exhibition in 1956 at the famous Betty Parsons gallery and then showed there again in 1957. It was to be the beginning of his fame amongst other artists as well as the public.

It was in the 1960’s that he began to focus on printmaking as a medium, attracted by the possibility of creating an absolutely pristine clean description of shape and filling it with brilliant flat colour. It is the interaction between this clarity of form, with the most sensitive of variations in the delineation, and set against his special intensity of colour, that is central to his art.  ‘Red Curve’ here is an outstanding example of this concept.

Note: Joel Wachs(to whom Kelly dedicated this print)  was a long-time member of the Los Angeles City Council, its past President, and candidate for Mayor. In 2001 he left Los Angeles to join The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and became its president in October 2001. During his many years in LA he was recognised as the leading advocate for the arts and for arts-linked organisations. He was also a strong supporter of Kelly and the other ‘colour abstraction’ artists.

Original lithograph in colour. 1988. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil from the edition of 130. Drawn and printed at the studio of Gemini G.E.L. Los Angeles 1988.

Note: Created by Kelly in support of Joel Wachs on the Los Angeles Council.