Rijksmuseum presents Ellsworth Kelly in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

Admission is free to this exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Gardens. The exhibition will be open to the public, until 24 October 2021. Ellsworth Kelly in the Rijksmuseum Gardens has come about through a close partnership with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio. The exhibition was made possible in part by a private donor, Ellsworth Kelly Studio, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Pon and Rijksclub.

Ellsworth Kelly in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

Ellsworth Kelly (Newburgh 1923 – 2015 Spencertown) was inspired by ‘the things he saw’. He distilled his observations to their essence and transformed them into simple, clear-cut surfaces and forms. The exhibition shows his approach on free shapes, through works such as the recumbent Curve I (1973), an abstracted carton cup, and Yellow Blue (1968), a vividly contrasting sculpture directly connected to his multipanel paintings. Several of the works refer to totem poles. The artist himself barely distinguished between painting and sculpture as art forms; in both cases, his focus was on form – ‘In sculpture, the work itself is the form and the ground is the space around it’ he once wrote. The shapes of the sculptures, as well as the colour palettes and materials Kelly used, ensure their crisp, well-defined contours contrast starkly with their surroundings. The artist’s use of intense, counterpoised colours makes each of his sculptures – whether in bronze, weathering steel or wood – a crystal-clear visual statement. This exhibition presents a representative overview of the artist’s sculptural work from the 1960s until shortly before his death.

Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly is regarded as one of the most important post-war abstract artists. After serving in the Ghost Army in the Second World War, Kelly studied fine arts first in Boston and later Paris where he came through the G.I. Bill and stayed for six years – during his stay, he also visited the Netherlands on several occasions. After returning from Paris to the US in 1954, it would be a few years before he became integrated in the New York art scene. From 1957 onwards his work was acquired by prestigious museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and in 1973 the first retrospective was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Several Dutch museum collections contain pieces by Ellsworth Kelly, including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and the Kröller Müller Museum in Otterlo.

Sculptures in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

Ellsworth Kelly in the Rijksmuseum Gardens is part of a series of sculpture exhibitions in the Rijksmuseum Gardens that is curated by guest curator Alfred Pacquement, the former director of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Previous editions of this series were devoted to the work of Henry Moore (2013), Alexander Calder (2014), Joan Miró (2015), Giuseppe Penone (2016), Jean Dubuffet (2017), Eduardo Chillida (2018) and Louise Bourgeois (2019).

Book

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue Ellsworth Kelly in the Rijksmuseum Gardens, published in Dutch and English. Written by Alfred Pacquement, it contains a contribution from Carel Blotkamp, Emeritus Professor of Modern Art History at VU Amsterdam, on the relationship between Ellsworth Kelly and the Netherlands. Available from mid-June 2021 from the Rijksmuseum web shop and museum shop, price €15.

Ellsworth Kelly at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

May - August The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has a large collection of American abstract post-war art, and a long association with Ellsworth Kelly. In 1967, Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum became the first museum in Europe to buy work by Kelly, and later, in 1979, to stage a solo exhibition devoted to the artist’s work. Following the exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Gardens, the Stedelijk will show the Blue Red Rocker sculpture from 1963 and the Blue Curve VI painting from 1982.

Invaluable support

The Rijksmuseum has been hit hard by the pandemic. More than ever, it is clear that the museum cannot survive without its patrons. Government subsidies, corporate contributions and support from funds, as well as donations, legacies and Friends are, and will remain, essential to the Rijksmuseum.