Floor 5: 5th Floor Landing (Exhibition Landing): QR Code 502

**Fisher Collection Reimagined 10:** **Calder, Kelly, LeWitt: Fundamentals of Form** _Line, Form, Color_ was the title that twenty-eight-year-old Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) gave to a proposed book project in 1951 (later published in 1999), which he described as “an alphabet of plastic pictorial elements.” This floor is dedicated to the work of Kelly and two other leading twentieth-century US artists, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) and Sol LeWitt (1928–2007), all of whom explored essential elements of line, form, and color. Their work emerged from varied starting points, from modern abstraction in 1930s Paris (Calder) to the reaction against modernism in1960s New York (LeWitt). Kelly—who spent formative years in Paris after World War II and befriended Calder there—occupied something of a middle position. Despite these differences, we can see unexpected affinities: Kelly and LeWitt both made work consisting of repeating elements, while many of Calder’s mobiles are composed of similar, if always slightly varying, units. Each artist engaged architecture and real space, whether projecting or suspending sculptures from walls and ceilings (Calder), making multi-panel and shaped paintings that turn the wall into a ground (Kelly), or conceiving ephemeral wall drawings (LeWitt). All three also opened their artworks to external elements, from passing air currents (Calder), to found forms and processes guided by chance (Kelly), to allowing the interpretation of their instructions by different drafts people at changing sites (LeWitt). These parallel presentations of Calder, Kelly, and LeWitt demonstrate how each artist radically innovated by investigating art’s basic building blocks. In the adjoining Co-Lab on this floor, visitors of all ages can explore some of these concepts hands-on. Gamynne Guillotte Chief Education and Public Engagement Officer Ted Mann Project Assistant Curator, Fisher Collection Visionary support for Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10 is provided by Fisher Art Foundation. Lead support is provided by Penny S. and James G. Coulter, Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, and Diana Nelson and John Atwater. Presenting support is provided by Dana and Bob Emery. Major support is provided by Katie Hall and Tom Knutsen. Significant support is provided by Concepción S. and Irwin Federman, Alexandria and Kevin Marchetti, and Deborah and Kenneth Novack. Meaningful support is provided by Alka and Ravin Agrawal, Sabrina Buell and Yves Béhar, Nancy and Alan Schatzberg, and Susan Swig.