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Lot Essay
Falcon is an exquisite example of Ellsworth Kelly's work from the late 1950s. It stands on its own as an achievement in compositional eloquence. The painting follows Kelly's return to New York City from Paris in 1954, when the artist reduces the more complex geometry and color of his early fifties compositions to the play of large, bold forms in black and white or a palette of one or two colors. Amazingly, Kelly's self-imposed restrictions actually afford his work a new complexity and depth, with implications both inside and outside the confines of the canvas.
By wedging together white and red, Kelly creates a work that is simple, yet invites serious contemplation. Before Falcon, the viewer meditates on its refreshing purity, realizing the seemingly endless possibilities of form and color.
Falcon is also characteristic of Kelly's sophisticated critical awareness of the framing edge of his canvases. Both red and white extend to the edges of the work, interacting with the wall upon which the work is hung. Meanwhile, the figure-ground relationship of the work is left wholly ambiguous. Is this red on white or white on red? Rather than defining form, color becomes form. By manipulating spatial bearings within the canvas and its relationship to its environment, Kelly forces the viewer to rethink both depicted and actual space.
(fig. 1) Kelly at Broad Street studio, New York, 1956.
By wedging together white and red, Kelly creates a work that is simple, yet invites serious contemplation. Before Falcon, the viewer meditates on its refreshing purity, realizing the seemingly endless possibilities of form and color.
Falcon is also characteristic of Kelly's sophisticated critical awareness of the framing edge of his canvases. Both red and white extend to the edges of the work, interacting with the wall upon which the work is hung. Meanwhile, the figure-ground relationship of the work is left wholly ambiguous. Is this red on white or white on red? Rather than defining form, color becomes form. By manipulating spatial bearings within the canvas and its relationship to its environment, Kelly forces the viewer to rethink both depicted and actual space.
(fig. 1) Kelly at Broad Street studio, New York, 1956.