The second volume of a comprehensive account of the work of Ellsworth Kelly, encompassing his early years in New York
Authored by Kelly scholar Yve-Alain Bois in direct collaboration with the late artist's partner and estate, this comprehensive publication contains exhaustive documentation of the work of American artist Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), including his paintings, sculptures and reliefs.
Picking up where the first volume left off, this publication follows Kelly from his return to New York from France in 1954 through his early years living in the artist community of downtown Coenties Slip, where he shared a studio with friend and fellow abstract painter Agnes Martin. During this formative period spent in New York City, Kelly's style evolved beyond the foundation of his French Cubist and modernist influences and into a distinctive abstract style which fused large-format painting with a study of shapes and planar masses. By 1958, Kelly's practice had also expanded to include sculpture, a craft inspired by conversations with his studio-mate Agnes Martin, and which would go on to be a primary medium through which Kelly's later work is understood. The evolution of Kelly's style experienced during the years chronicled in this publication provided a much-needed bridge from the abstraction of the 1940s to the minimalism of the 1960s.
The publication includes insightful texts and high-quality images of individual works and preparatory drawings, along with provenance information, exhibition history and bibliographic information, making it an indispensable reference tool for institutions, collectors and admirers.