Ellsworth Kelly, Black & White, Vernissage

Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923 in Newburgh, New York) is among the most important protagonists of Colour Field Painting. His paintings, in large format for the most part and consisting usually of several panels, are an impressive interplay of form, colour and space. Kelly's works are notable for their very lean imagery: The forms are geometric or organic, the contours are drawn sharply, the colours are intense.  

Form, derived from real observation, is at the source of Kelly's creative process. The window of a museum, the floor of a Paris café, the diagonal shadow of a garage entranceway – fragments of everyday reality that the artist translates into the simplest, most memorable forms, hence turning the quotidian into two-dimensional signs. The exhibition was organised in close cooperation with the artist, whoalready encouraged a presentation of his black and white works in the 1990s. Introduction: Okwui Enwezor / Director Haus der Kunst

Interview: Ulrich Wilmes / Curator Haus der Kunst And Elsworth Kelly (live via Skype)