Lot 8 : Ellsworth Kelly b. 1923 Wave Relief II (EK258) signed with initials, titled, dated 1960-61 and numbe...
Auction Location: United States of America - 2001
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Description:
Ellsworth Kelly b. 1923 Wave Relief II (EK258) signed with initials, titled, dated 1960-61 and numbered 258 on the reverse oil on panel 22 1/2 by 35 7/8 in.1 1/2in. 57.2 by 91.1 by 3.8cm. Provenance Betty Parsons Gallery, New York Mr. and Mrs. Sidney M. Feldman, Pittsburgh Estate of Sylvia B. Feldman, Miami Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1993 Exhibited Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, extended loan Literature John Coplans, Ellsworth Kelly, New York, 1971, pl. 122, illustrated Patterson Sims and Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1982, p. 70, no. 31 Susan Cheever, "A Bel-Air Collection", Architectural Digest, April 1997, p. 141, illustrated in color During the late 1940s and early 1950s, whilst in Paris, Ellsworth Kelly made a number of economic, sinuous line drawings. His drawings of plants, leaves and seaweed are of particular interest in the context of the present work. These captivating sheets reveal Kelly's sensitivity to mass and form early on in his career, and he would often return to these drawings to inspire later paintings and sculptures. The early graphic work is remarkable for its purity of line, executed in a confident, continuous movement, which serves to define shape in a seemingly effortless fashion. Wave Relief II, executed in New York in 1960-61, is a work that seems to echo those early graphic concerns of form, shape and density. The artist made a small series of these wall reliefs, and whilst they remain 'sculptural' in their 'objectness', projecting off the wall, one could almost consider them three-dimensional drawings, given the way Kelly cuts through space without the aid of color. Here, he relies on his extraordinary graphic capabilities to describe the new space he has created. The relief is as sharp and dedicated as the line one finds in the early drawings. One has to go back to the works of Jean Arp, particularly his Constellationsfrom the 1930s, to f
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