Floor 5: Ellsworth Kelly Curves: QR Code 514
Overview
Interpretive Text
Objects
5 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
Label Text
1978
Aluminum and paint
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1979
Visual Description
A wall relief about 6 feet tall consists of two overlapping, off-white geometric forms. Dominating the composition to the right is a nearly full circular disc in a very light cream tone, its edge reading as a clean arc that almost reaches the top and bottom of the work. To the left, a tall, vertically oriented curved panel intersects the circle, creating a narrow crescent-shaped zone where the two forms overlap. The surfaces are smooth and matte, and the geometry is defined largely by soft shadows and gentle gradients along the edges. The left panel throws a faint shadow along its outer edge, while the circular disc casts a delicate shadow beneath and to the right, emphasizing the relief’s depth.
Label Text
1978–80
Wood
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1999
Visual Description
A wide, thin birchwoodartwork about 14 feet wide is shaped like a symmetricalfan. It has a long, gently arcing top edge and two straight edges tapering down to a single bottom point that sits about two feet above the floor. The wood is ahoney-blond tone with visible horizontal grain and elongated knots and ovals that run left to right across the surface. The surface appears smooth and matte, emphasizing the natural variations in color—paler bands alternating with warmer amber streaks. The thin plane is spaced about five inches away from the wall, giving the impression that it is floating. A soft shadow falls behind and slightly below the panel, outlining its curved silhouette****and reinforcing its crisp, clean-cut edges.
Label Text
1996
Oil on canvas
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1997
Visual Description
A large, vertically oriented oil-on-canvas work (about 11.9 ft tall and 5.5 ft wide) presents a single red shape. The red form is a broad, vertical circular segment or crescent: its left edge is a smooth, slightly diagonal straight line, while its right edge is a long, continuous outward curve, creating a thick, tapering wedge that narrows at the top and bottom. The red paint appears flat and uniform, with subtle tonal variations. A faint gray shadow falls along the shape’s left side. No text or additional imagery appears.
Label Text
1978
Oil on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1999
Visual Description
Measuring about 9 feet tall and wide, this oil-on-canvas painting presents a monochrome composition. A single, elongated white shape cuts diagonally from the upper left toward the lower right of the wall. The form has crisp, straight edges along its length, with a subtly arcing, rounded edge at the upper left end and a more angular, tapered corner at the lower right. Extremely delicate tonal shifts and soft shadows along the edges create the illusion that the white form is slightly raised above the background, as if hovering or layered.
Label Text
1985
Oil on canvas
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1989
Visual Description
A painting around 9 feet tall presents a single, solid dark navy-blue form shaped like a curved fan or wedgeagainst a white background. The blue form occupies the central area and is defined by two straight edges that meet in a sharp point near the lower-left, while the top edge sweeps in a smooth arc from the upper-left toward the upper-right, creating the sensation of a large, cropped circle segment. The paint surface reads as extremely even. A narrow halo of soft shadowing along parts of the perimeter makes the crisp boundary between blue and white feel slightly dimensional, as if the shape hovers.