Floor 5: Ellsworth Kelly Curves (exiting Sol LeWitt)
Overview
Gallery Wayfinding
You are in the Ellsworth Kelly Curves Gallery. Kelly's huge, curving planes that feature different colors and surface textures dominate the space.
You've entered at the back of the wide, rectangular gallery in the right corner, facing the long, far front wall. There are six pieces along the walls. There is an oval-shaped sofa with armrests in the center of the gallery.
The exit to the Ellsworth Kelly North Gallery is in the front right corner. The QR code is at the threshold on the right wall, marked with a perpendicular tactile floor strip.
Label
"The form of my painting is the content."
—Ellsworth Kelly, 1990
Ellsworth Kelly (born 1923, Newburgh, New York; died 2015, Spencertown, New York) approached abstraction through careful looking. Many of his works began with isolated images that caught his eye—the outline of a windowsill, the contour of a leaf, the curve of a hill seen through a window.
Working through sketches or collages, Kelly then translated these observations into compositions. With their crisp, clearly articulated shapes and often vibrant planes of color, Kelly's paintings and sculptures hold their own as singular visual experiences. They have a commanding presence as physical objects in their own right, occupying real space and engaging the surrounding architecture.
The works on view in the next several galleries span the full six decades of Kelly's career. They include paintings and reliefs from his formative six years in Paris (1948–54), when he developed his strategy of using found, or "already made," forms, and the increasingly large, shaped and multi-panel paintings he made while in New York City (1954–69). The last gallery features the curved paintings and sculptures that Kelly began producing after moving to rural upstate New York in 1970. Throughout, his keen eye and sensitivity to the nuances of color, contour, shape, and proportion invite us to slow down and observe.
Related Media
Artwork Label Text
Ellsworth Kelly on abstraction.
SFMOMA interview (2014)
Single-channel video, with sound, 3:59 min.
Transcript
Ellsworth Kelly:
I have always lived in the present—present tense—and I think I'd like my paintings to be in the present tense. And I think I'd like my paintings to be in the present tense.
When I was young, I was with a bunch of kids running around on Halloween night, throwing tomatoes and all that kind of stuff. And in the darkness, I was looking at a window, and I saw a red shape, a blue shape, and a black shape. And I left the gang because I was interested. I said, I've got to find out what that is. And I looked in the window, and I couldn't find what I was looking at. It was just an ordinary room. And then, so I had to back up slowly. And then it was furniture, a curtain—blue, red. It's very close to seeing my first abstraction.
And when I got to Paris, I did some Picasso-type paintings, and figures at first, six months. But then I stopped. I said, you know, I didn’t come to Paris to be like the paintings that have been done. And I saw a show in which the paintings were quite small. And I saw the windows, which were about 15ft. And I kept saying, you know, I like these windows better than these paintings here. And I said, I have to have one. So I painted the window. I made it so big. I didn't want to tell anyone what it was. I felt that it wasn't really kosher to do something like that. But I began seeing things in Paris that I lifted. You know, I made drawings of things, ideas of structure.
Yes, La Combe developed from shadows on a staircase. I was fascinated by shadows. I felt like I was picking up something that was mysterious. I'm attracted to color and shape. I feel that people want a concept. They've always had a concept. You know, I mean, the figurative right away is a story, and abstraction has always been, “Oh, it's abstract.” I think my pictures need time. Time is very important with art. And, a show—even though it's a couple of weeks or sometimes a month—it's not enough time. You know, you go to the gallery once, you see it, ten minutes or so, and walk on.
I like to leave my paintings to be mysterious. I like them to be open. I feel like they have to be looked at; they have to be investigated, to be mysterious. I like them to be open. I feel like they have to be looked at. They have to be investigated.
I'm not figurative, but I'm completely abstract. You know, in a way that I think I found myself, I could just say, for instance: every day of the week I'm here at the studio. Something comes to my mind. I make a sketch of it. It's like the light bulb going on, you know, and I have to do it. And right now, since I'm on oxygen, I feel like it's very important. I still have work I have to do. This yellow painting over there is part of a painting that I'm doing. I definitely have to have that painting done in my lifetime.
Label
In the 1970s, following his move to the Berkshires in upstate New York, Kelly increasingly explored curved forms in paintings and sculptures. The works in this gallery reflect the variety of shapes—as well as materials, surfaces, and colors—that interested him. The fan-shaped Curve XXI is one of number of arcs that Kelly created by extracting a section of a large circle. In Blue Panel, the artist made one of the straight sides longer than the other to create an asymmetrical, twisted curve that seems to tilt back in space. And in Red Curves, straight edges are eliminated altogether, and two arcs with different degrees of curvature combine to create a dynamic, soaring form.
Objects
6 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
Artwork Label Text
1974
Weathering steel
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1991
Visual Description
A large, wall-mounted, metal sculpture of a flat, fan-like form in dark rust brown that reaches almost as high as a tall adult and as long as an average car. It contains a long sweeping curved top edge and three sharp points: one at the our far left, one at our far right, and one centered at the bottom. Its surface is textured, reflecting oxidized steel or weathered metal, with subtle tonal variations and faint mottling across the plane. The sculpture is set about five inches away from the wall, and soft shadows beneath the sides and below the bottom tip emphasize its thinness and crisp edges.
Artwork 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 the height of a tall adult, but narrower than their outstretched arms—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, which is set about eight inches above the larger form—a depth visible from the side, but not from the front —throws a faint shadow along its outer edge. The circular disc casts a shadow beneath and to the right, emphasizing the relief's depth.
Artwork 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
Family Label: Wood you look at that!
This artwork is made entirely out of wood. Follow the smooth curve at the top with your eyes, and the sharp corners it ends with on either side. Notice how the piece almost seems to float off the wall.
Do you think its shadow is a part of the artwork, too?
Visual Description
A large, wall-mounted, thin birchwood sculpture of a flat, symmetrical, fan-like form reaches almost as high as a tall adult and as long as an average car. 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 a honey-blond tone with visible horizontal grain and elongated knots and ovals that run from left to right across the surface. The surface appears smooth and matte and emphasizes the natural variations in color, such as 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.
Artwork 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 painting on a shaped canvas—stretching nearly the full height of the gallery wall, and almost as wide as the average adult’s outstretched arms—presents a single, vivid red form created by two intersecting curves. Its left edge is a smooth, slightly curved line, while its right edge is a long, continuous outward curve; the resulting irregular shape leans to the left and tapers at its top and bottom to two sharp points. The red oil paint appears flat and uniform, without visible brushstrokes, texture, or modulation. The same color and treatment continue around the canvases’ visible edges. The painting casts subtle shadows on the wall.
Artwork 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 nine feet tall—taller than the average room ceiling—and several feet wide, this irregularly shaped canvas is painted in a uniform, smooth, matte white. The elongated shape appears tilted to the left, so that its highest point is on the left and its lowest point is on the right. The work’s left side is a long straight edge, while the opposite (right) side is rounded and appears to trace the gradual arc of a very large circle. The short top and bottom edges are both straight edges, but do not parallel one another; the top side forms a roughly ninety-degree angle with the left side, while the bottom edge forms a sharper, more acute angle. The edges of the canvas are painted in the same matte white color. The canvas is unframed and set several inches away from the gallery wall, producing slight shadows along its edges.
Artwork 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
Family Label: Curious shapes
How did Ellsworth Kelly find his shapes? He noticed shadows and spaces between everyday things. Those shapes often became his art.
What do you think inspired this shape?
Visual Description
A large, shaped canvas that takes the form of an asymmetrical wedge—rising around nine feet tall, which is higher than the average room ceiling, and spanning nine feet across—is painted a solid, dark navy blue. The work's top edge sweeps in a smooth arc, like a large, cropped circle segment. This joins two straight edges of uneven length that meet at a sharp point at the bottom. The paint is applied flatly and uniformly, without any visible brushstrokes, texture, or modulation. A thin silver-white aluminum frame surrounds the canvas.