Without the slightest trace of doubt in mind, Ellsworth Kelly was one of the greatest 20th-century abstract artists emerging from the United States. His pure forms and colors blended with the tendency to suppress gesture in favor of creating spatial unity within the composition paved the way for Kelly to have massive influences on both the Color Field painting and Minimalist movement. Ellsworth’s work mostly consisted of bright, monochromatic shaped canvases and sculptures the artist derived from the occurrences of everyday life surrounding him. Ultimately, his efforts towards validating Abstraction as a genuine creative expression is Kelly’s greatest contribution to modern and contemporary art history[1].

Isolated Youth and Early Education
Ellsworth Kelly was the second son of Allan Howe Kelly and Florence Bithens Kelly, a couple who lived in Newburgh, a town located approximately 60 miles north of New York City. Allan Howe Kelly worked as an insurance company executive, whilst Ellsworth’s mother Florence was a school teacher. His gene pool was rather mixed as Kelly had Scots-Irish, German, Welsh and Pennsylvania blood running through his veins. The young artist’s family lived near the Oradell Reservoir where his paternal grandmother presented him to the science of ornithology for the first time when Ellsworth was about eight or nine years of age. It was in Oradell Reservoir that Kelly developed his deeply rooted passion for color and form. There are many experts, such as Eugene Goossen, that agree that this artist’s career was so devoted to color simply because his childhood’s fascination with observing birds never completely left his mind. In that sense, all Ellsworth was doing for the entirety of his career was chasing the same delight he experienced while he was still a toddler at the Oradell Reservoir. His early devotions to birds and nature may have been further forced upon him by the slight stutter that persisted into his teenage years, making Kelly feel very isolated when surrounded by unknown people. He attended the local public school and was lucky enough to end up with the right professors who aimed at developing his creative imagination. As a matter of fact, it was a school teacher that encouraged him to pursue an art training despite Kelly’s parents being against such a radical and life-altering decision. Kelly studied at the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, an institution of which he was a part of from the year of 1941 until the moment he was inducted into the Army on New Year’s Day of 1943.
Ellsworth Kelly intended that his work should be experienced through instinctive responses to its structure and color rather than with contextual or interpretive analysis

Ellsworth Kelly – the Soldier and the Artist
Hearing that the 603rd Engineers Camouflage Battalion was taking many young artists at this stressful time, Kelly desired to be assigned to that company upon entering the United States military service in 1943. However, after a six weeks training, the young artist served in a deception unit known as The Ghost Army. This company’s goals were simple – to mislead the Axis forces about the direction and disposition of Allied forces by using inflatable tanks, trucks and other elements of subterfuge. Due to a lot of exposure to military camouflage, Kelly’s future visual vocabulary would be reinforced by this experience. Kelly served with The Ghost Army unit from 1943 until the end of the European phase of the war.
After returning home, Ellsworth decided to accept the G.I. Bill program and study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where he took advantage of the museum’s collections. Showing great potential, he was soon offered an opportunity to attend classes at the legendary École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. While the ex-soldier and a WWII veteran was at this institution in France, he would study day and night, exploring all the advantages this school had to offer and eventually establish his aesthetic vocabulary. Immersing himself in the rich artistic resources of the French capital[2], Kelly found an artistic guiding star within the work and character of Paul Cézanne. He also met fellow Americans John Cage and Merce Cunningham in Paris as the two were in the experimental phases of their career. Some sources state that Ellsworth also befriended Jean Arp to some extent. After being abroad for six years, Kelly decided to return to America in 1954. Like many of his contemporaries who returned to New York after a long time of art studying in Europe, Kelly found the Big Apple scene way too rough and uninteresting.
As did the early twentieth century Dadaists, Ellsworth Kelly emphasized the spontaneous, the casual and the ephemeral much more than any traditional aspect of art making

Releasing the Abstraction
It took Kelly a long time to adjust and break through the ranks of the NYC scene. His first solo exhibition was held at Betty Parsons’ Gallery during the May of 1956. As expected, his art was considered more European than was popular in New York at the time. His pieces were considered radically different from the other works available at the time – a characteristic that became Ellsworth’s trademark at one point. However, he was not able to become as popular as he wanted and after over fifteen years of working in the Big Apple, Kelly left and settled in Spencertown in 1970. Here, he was finally able to release his Abstraction without any boundary that weighted his creativity in New York. In 1973, Kelly began regularly making large-scale outdoor sculpture artworks which remain as some of the greatest abstractly sculptured pieces ever made[3]. Both his paintings and sculptures thrived in these new circumstances. Ellsworth first added curved shapes to his repertoire, something he was terribly lacking in the past decades. Ultimately, this led to a pivotal break with the rectangular support and his redefinition of painting’s figure-ground relationship. He was also finally able to use the space surrounding the pieces to his advantage, achieving excellent results that he always wanted and heavily influencing the global development of installation along the way.
In later paintings and sculptures, namely those from the 1980s and 1990s, Kelly distilled his palette and introduced new forms that altered his creative vocabulary a bit[4]. The artist explained his own work in 1996 by stating the following: I think what we all want from art is a sense of fixity, a sense of opposing the chaos of daily living. This an illusion, of course. Canvas rots. Paint changes color. But you keep trying to freeze the world as if you could make it last forever. In a sense, what I’ve tried to capture is the reality of flux, to keep art an open, incomplete situation, to get at the rapture of seeing. To this day, this remains as one of the greatest explanations of abstract art ever put into words. From 2001, Kelly worked in a 20,000-square-feet studio reconfigured and extended by the architect Richard Gluckman in Spencertown. This room will ultimately be the last working studio of Ellsworth as he spent the last years of his life creating art within these walls[5]. Kelly passed away on December 27 in the year of 2015. He was 92 at the time.

What Ellsworth Kelly Left Behind
When one observes Ellsworth Kelly’s career as a whole, it’s not a challenge to conclude just how pivotal his work was for establishing Abstraction as a valid field of art making. His explorations of light, space and color were crucial for all of the modern and contemporary art, having massive influences on Pop Art, Color Field painting and Minimalism. His sculptures, paintings and drawings are some of the best abstract pieces ever made and it would be foolish to even consider discussing the United States’ scene of Abstraction without analyzing the life and work of Ellsworth Kelly.
This artist is represented by Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art Miami.
References:
- Fer, B., Kelly, E., Ellsworth Kelly: Outside In, Matthew Marks Gallery, 2015
- Shiff, R., Ellsworth Kelly: New York Drawings 1954-1962, Prestel, 2014
- Temkin, A., Ellsworth Kelly: The Chatham Series, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2013
- Wilmes, U., Kelly, E., Ellsworth Kelly: Black & White, Hatje Cantz, 2012
- Kelly, E., Richardson, B., Ellsworth Kelly: Wood Sculpture, MFA Publications, 2011
Featured image: Ellsworth Kelly – Photo of the artist – Image via nyt.com
All images used for illustrative purposes only.
Year | Exhibition Title | Gallery/Museum | Solo/Group |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Outside In | Matthew Marks Galler, New York City, NY | Solo |
2015 | The New York School, 1969: Henry Geldzahler at the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2015 | Standing in the Shadows of Love: The Aldrich Collection 1964–1974, Part 2 | The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT | Group |
2014 | Ellsworth Kelly: Selected Works | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2014 | Plant Lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly, 1964-66 | Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA | Solo |
2014 | Ellsworth Kelly - Twelve colour prints from the artist’s own collection | Ingleby Gallery,Edinburgh, Scotland | Solo |
2014 | Artists for Artists | Matthew Marks Gallery - 522 West 22th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2014 | Monet Kelly | The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA | Group |
2014 | New Projects 2014 | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2014 | A Drawing Show (group show) | Matthew Marks Gallery - 526 West 22nd Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2014 | Art=Text=Art - Private Languages, Public Systems | UB Art Galleries - University of Buffalo,Buffalo, NY | Group |
2014 | After the Front Line: Artists Who Served in the World Wars | Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL | Group |
2014 | Face à l'oeuvre | Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul | Group |
2014 | Modern and Contemporary Prints and Editions | McClain Gallery, Houston, TX | Group |
2014 | Formes simples | Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz | Group |
2014 | Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert & Jane Meyerhoff Collection | The de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA | Group |
2014 | Art On Color | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2014 | Great Prints | Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2014 | Rare Posters | Gallery 360 Degree, Tokyo | Group |
2014 | Minimal Art | Gallery A-zone, Okayama | Group |
2014 | Donald Judd Ellsworth Kelly Sakumoto Tomok - Minimal Art | Gallery A-zone, Okayama | Group |
2014 | Double Negative: From Painting To Object | Museo Tamayo, Mexico City | Group |
2014 | Contemporary Masters | Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2014 | Nichts Ist Kunst | Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz | Group |
2014 | Sculpture | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2014 | Experience 09: Silence | ESMoA, El Segundo, CA | Group |
2014 | Temi & Variazioni. L'impero Della Luce | Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice | Group |
2014 | New & Recent Editions | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2013 | Ellsworth Kelly - Panel Paintings 2004–2009 | The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC | Solo |
2013 | Ellsworth Kelly: Prints | The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI | Solo |
2013 | Ellsworth Kelly: The Chatham Series | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Solo |
2013 | Ellsworth Kelly - At Ninety | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2013 | Ellsworth Kelly - At Ninety | Matthew Marks Gallery - 522 West 22th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2013 | EK@90. Celebrating Ellsworth Kelly's 90th Birthday | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2013 | Ellsworth Kelly - Singular Forms 1966 - 2009 | Mnuchin Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2013 | Once upon a time and a very good time it was… | Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland | Group |
2013 | Shifting Planes | Van Doren Waxter, New York City, NY | Group |
2013 | White - Photography, Art, Design, Fashion, Film | Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam | Group |
2013 | Private Selections | Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY | Group |
2013 | Farbenfroh - Graphik Aus Der Sammlung Kemp | Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf | Group |
2013 | Pictures of Nothing | The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY | Group |
2013 | Adventures of truth - Painting and philosophy | Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul | Group |
2013 | Across Dimensions: Graphics And Sculpture From The Permanent Collection | Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA | Group |
2013 | Playing with Process: Explorations in Experimental Printmaking | MFAH - Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX | Group |
2013 | Sobre Papel On Paper | Centro de Artes Visuales Helga de Alvear, Cáceres | Group |
2013 | Die Sammlung Hubert Looser | Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich | Group |
2013 | Celestial | McClain Gallery, Houston, TX | Group |
2013 | Art=Text=Art - Private Languages Public Systems | Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjörður | Group |
2013 | Ensemble | Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo | Group |
2013 | Abluminal | The Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA | Group |
2013 | The Artist and the Poet | The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL | Group |
2013 | Black Space | Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2013 | Abstractions On Paper | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR | Group |
2013 | Woodward Gallery, New York City, NY | Group | |
2012 | Ellsworth Kelly Colored Paper Images | The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | Solo |
2012 | Ellsworth Kelly - Spectral Colors | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2012 | Ellsworth Kelly Selected Prints | Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR | Solo |
2012 | Ellsworth Kelly - Plant Drawings | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY | Solo |
2012 | Ellsworth Kelly - Schwarz und Weiß | Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden | Solo |
2012 | Louisiana On Paper: Ellsworth Kelly | Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk | Solo |
2012 | Ellsworth Kelly: Prints and Paintings | Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA, Los Angeles, CA | Solo |
2012 | Exposition de groupe | Marlborough Monaco, Monaco | Group |
2012 | Obra Sobre Papel | Galeria Javier López, Madrid | Group |
2012 | Avant-Gardes - The collection of the Triton Foundation | Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam | Group |
2012 | A WINDOW ON THE WORLD, from Dürer to Mondrian and beyond | Museo Cantonale d´Arte Lugano, Lugano | Group |
2012 | Una finestra sul mondo - Da Dürer a Mondrian e oltre | Museo d'Arte di Lugano, Lugano | Group |
2012 | Flashback | ARTAe Galerie & Kunstvermittlung, Leipzig | Group |
2012 | Art=Text=Art: Private Languages Public Systems | Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ | Group |
2012 | The New York Collection for Stockholm | Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA | Group |
2012 | When Does Something Become Something Else? | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2012 | Politics as Symbol Symbol as Politic | Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS | Group |
2012 | What's the Point? | Gallery Jen Bekman, New York City, NY | Group |
2012 | Editions | Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2012 | After May | Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2012 | Polly Apfelbaum | Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX | Group |
2012 | Index : A Group Exhibition of Significant Prints | Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2012 | Thanks: 50th Anniversary Exhibition | Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH | Group |
2012 | Aufbruch. Malerei und realer Raum | AdK - Akademie der Künste, Berlin | Group |
2012 | Prints | Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX | Group |
2012 | Fresh Widow - Fenster-Bilder seit Matisse und Duchamp | K20 Grabbeplatz, Dusseldorf | Group |
2012 | Martin Visser: collector, designer, free spirit | Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht | Group |
2012 | Great Prints | Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2012 | After Abstract Expressionism | Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL | Group |
2012 | Happier Than The Morning Sun | Galerie Clemens Thimme, Karlsruhe | Group |
2012 | You Call This Art | Florida Gulf Coast University Art Gallery, Fort Myers, FL | Group |
2011 | Ellsworth kelly - Schwarz & weiß | Haus der Kunst München, Munich | Solo |
2011 | Ellsworth Kelly - Plant Drawings | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich | Solo |
2011 | Ellsworth Kelly: Wood Sculpture | MFA - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | Solo |
2011 | Ellsworth Kelly - Gemini G.E.L. | Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2011 | Ellsworth Kelly - Reliefs 2009 - 2010 | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2011 | Geometrisch-abstrakt | C.Art-Galerie - Prantl & Boch, Dornbirn | Group |
2011 | Lets Party For A Piece Of Art | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich | Group |
2011 | Art At The Origin: The Early 1960S | The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA | Group |
2011 | Contemporary Drawings from the Irving Stenn Jr. Collection | The Art Institute of Chicago,Chicago, IL | Group |
2011 | Contemporary Masters | Alan Cristea Gallery, London | Group |
2011 | Pacific Standard Editions: An East Coast Look At The West Coast Celebration Of Pacific Standard Time | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2011 | Hot Cold Cool | AMUM - Art Museum of the University of Memphis, Memphis, TN | Group |
2011 | September 11 | MoMA PS1, New York City, NY | Group |
2011 | Aufbruch | Situation Kunst, Bochum | Group |
2011 | Prints - Contemporary Masters I | Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2011 | Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary Artists | Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art - University of Richmond, Richmond, VA | Group |
2011 | Abstract Delight: Selections from the Polly and Mark Addison Collection | CU Art Museum,Boulder, CO | Group |
2011 | Blast from the Past: 60s and 70s Geometric Abstractions | Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA | Group |
2011 | La couleur en avant | MAMAC - Musee d´Art Moderne et d`Art Contemporain Nice, Nice | Group |
2011 | Painterly Abstraction, 1949-1969: Selections from the Guggenheim Collections | Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao | Group |
2011 | Spatial Constructs: The Gift of Amy and David Niles in Context | Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso, TX | Group |
2011 | Master Works On Paper | Annandale Galleries, Annandale, NSW | Group |
2011 | Artists observed by Sidney B. Felsen à l'atelier Gemini G.E.L. | Galerie Lelong, Paris | Group |
2011 | Abstract Now and Then | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive BAM, PFA, Berkeley, CA | Group |
2011 | Arp, Beckmann, Munch, Kirchner, Warhol … Klassiker in Bonn | Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn | Group |
2011 | Drawn Taped Burned: Abstraction on Paper | Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY | Group |
2011 | Graphics Group Exhibition | Marlborough Chelsea, New York City, NY | Group |
2011 | New Acquisitions | Leslie Sacks Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA | Group |
2010 | Plants, Flowers and Fruits | Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA | Solo |
2010 | Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings 1954-62 | Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin | Solo |
2010 | Men On Madison | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2010 | On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2010 | Compass in hand | IVAM - Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia | Group |
2010 | On the Mark: Contemporary Works on Paper | The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD | Group |
2010 | Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s–50s | Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX | Group |
2010 | Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Ellsworth Kelly | Académie de France à Rome - Villa Médicis,Rome | Group |
2010 | Moving Patterns | The Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA | Group |
2010 | B&W | La Caja Negra, Madrid | Group |
2010 | HIGH IDEALS & CRAZY DREAMS | Galerie Vera Munro,Hamburg | Group |
2010 | Water Work | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA | Group |
2010 | Im Dialog | Kunststiftung Erich Hauser, Rottweil | Group |
2010 | Double Rotation - Werke aus der Sammlung Lafrenz | Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen | Group |
2010 | Minimalism: Logic Structure in the Graphic Arts | Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA | Group |
2010 | Abstract Resistance | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2010 | Classic Contemporary: Lichtenstein, Warhol And Friends | Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - MCASD La Jolla, La Jolla, CA | Group |
2010 | Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America | The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ | Group |
2010 | 20TH CENTURY CONTEMPORARY MASTERS | Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2010 | The Shape of Abstraction | Boston University Art Gallery - BUAG, Boston, MA | Group |
2010 | Markowitz, Love Text, & Cold Press | Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2010 | Kelly Knoebel Roeth Bambury Innes Judd | Jensen Gallery, Auckland | Group |
2010 | Grands Formats | Galerie Lelong, Zurich | Group |
2010 | Focus on Artists | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA | Group |
2009 | Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings 1954-1962 | Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art - MIMA,Middlesbrough | Solo |
2009 | Shape The Black and White Prints of Ellsworth Kelly | Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2009 | Diagonal | Matthew Marks Gallery - 522 West 22th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2009 | Ellsworth Kelly - Diagonal | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2009 | All Wrapped Up For The Holidays | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2009 | Cold Press | Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2009 | Just what is it… | ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe | Group |
2009 | Divided by a Common Language? British and American Works from The Murray Collection | The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY | Group |
2009 | Twentysix Gasoline Stations ed altri libri d'Artista | Museo Regionale di Messina, Messina | Group |
2009 | Back To Black And Light | Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto, ON | Group |
2009 | MOCA´s First Thirty Years | MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA | Group |
2009 | The Rose at Brandeis: Works from the Collection | The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA | Group |
2009 | Stripes Solids | Paula Cooper Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2009 | The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works | The National Gallery of Art,Washington, DC | Group |
2009 | Chance Aesthetics | Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO | Group |
2009 | Assembled Realities and Small Treasures | IKON Ltd, Santa Monica, CA | Group |
2009 | The Passionate Pursuit: Gifts and Promised Works from Donna and Cargill MacMillan, Jr. | Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA | Group |
2009 | Works on Paper | Faggionato Fine Arts, London | Group |
2009 | Ediciones Americanas | La Caja Negra, Madrid | Group |
2009 | IN 2 & 3D | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2009 | Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today | Tate Liverpool, Liverpool | Group |
2009 | Great Impressions II | Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee, WI | Group |
2009 | DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture | Tate Liverpool, Liverpool | Group |
2009 | Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2009 | Shaping Reality: Geometric Abstraction after 1960 | The Minneapolis Institute of Arts,Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2009 | Die Gegenwart der Linie | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich | Group |
2009 | Cézanne and Beyond | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA | Group |
2009 | Drei. Das Tryptichon in der Moderne | Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart | Group |
2009 | Artists in Their Studios | Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA | Group |
2009 | Nueva York - El Papel de las Ultimas Vanguardias | Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia | Group |
2009 | Vivre l'art | Espace de l’art concret, Mouans Sartoux | Group |
2009 | Usa Print Show | Jealous Gallery, London | Group |
2009 | Geometry as Image | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Group |
2008 | ELLSWORTH KELLY: Plant lithographs from the artist´s collection | Gallery I - Ingleby Gallery,Edinburgh, Scotland | Solo |
2008 | A Searching Line - The Plant Lithographs of Ellsworth Kelly | Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2008 | Text Messages: Books by Artists | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2008 | Correspondences 24. Paul Cézanne Ellsworth Kelly | Musée d´Orsay, Paris | Group |
2008 | LINES, GRIDS, STAINS, WORDS | Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden | Group |
2008 | IMPLANT | The Horticultural Society of New York Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2008 | Painting Now and Forever Part II | Greene Naftali, New York City, NY | Group |
2008 | Works on Paper - Mitchell-Innes & Nash | Madison Av., New York City, NY | Group |
2008 | Rhythmus 21 - Positionen des Abstrakten | Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus & Kunstbau,Munich | Group |
2008 | Attention to Detail | FLAG Art Foundation, New York City, NY | Group |
2008 | Drawn Together | FLAG Art Foundation, New York City, NY | Group |
2008 | Face to Face - The Daros Collections. Part2 | Daros Exhibitions, Zurich | Group |
2008 | Great Prints | Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2008 | Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2008 | The American Evolution - A History through Art | The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | Group |
2008 | How Artists Draw: Toward the Menil Drawing Institute and Study Center | The Menil Collection, Houston, TX | Group |
2008 | Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects | The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC | Group |
2008 | For the Spirit - From the UBS Art Collection | Mori Art Museum, Tokyo | Group |
2008 | Arp to Reinhardt: Rose Geometries | The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA | Group |
2007 | Front Room: Ellsworth Kelly | The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD | Solo |
2007 | Ellsworth Kelly: The Rivers | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2007 | Ellsworth Kelly: Paris, New York, 1949–1959 | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA | Solo |
2007 | Focus: Ellsworth Kelly | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Solo |
2007 | Ellsworth Kelly - Monumental Prints | Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2007 | The Complexity of the Simple | Mnuchin Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2007 | Die aufregende Kunst des 20 | Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin | Group |
2007 | Five Works in Bronze | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2007 | No Answer is also an answer - Recent Acquisitions 2005 – 2007 | Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin | Group |
2007 | Art in the USA: 300 años de innovación | Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao | Group |
2007 | Bold Expressions in Modern Art: The Buddy Greenberg Collection | Wichita Art Museum WAM,Wichita, KS | Group |
2007 | The Eclectic Eye - Pop and Illusion | Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO | Group |
2007 | Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? | Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden | Group |
2007 | Everything | Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas, TX | Group |
2007 | B. Millner Prints | Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA | Group |
2007 | Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now | NGV National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC | Group |
2007 | Grand Gestures: The Gordon F. Hampton Collection | UAM - University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA | Group |
2007 | 52nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale | Biennale di Venezia - La Biennale di Venezia, Venice | Group |
2007 | Modern American Masters | Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - MCASD Downtown, San Diego, CA | Group |
2007 | Paper: Featuring traditional and innovative uses of the medium | Fisher Landau Center For Art,New York City, NY | Group |
2007 | Breaking the Mold: Selections from the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, 1961-1968 | Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK | Group |
2007 | Twin Bill | Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK | Group |
2007 | What Is a Line? Drawings from the Collection | Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT | Group |
2007 | Die Kunst zu Sammeln | Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf | Group |
2007 | Paper thin | INOVA - Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, WI | Group |
2007 | Return to Cézanne | Collection Lambert, Avignon | Group |
2007 | La Curva del Mundo | Galeria Rafael Ortiz, Sevilla | Group |
2007 | New Abstraction | Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO | Group |
2007 | A Grand Opening - Gemini G.E.L. | Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2007 | Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art | Dallas Museum of Art,Dallas, TX | Group |
2007 | Living Color | Vasarely Museum, Budapest | Group |
2006 | Ellsworth Kelly - Colors, Rivers and Plants | La Caja Negra, Madrid | Solo |
2006 | Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings on a Bus—Sketchbook 23, 1954 | Matthew Marks Gallery - 521 West 22th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2006 | Ellsworth Kelly - Collages in Black and White 1973 to 1991 | James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | Solo |
2006 | Drawn from Nature: The Plant Lithographs of Ellsworth Kelly | AXA Gallery (fromer Equitable Gallery), New York City, NY | Solo |
2006 | Ellsworth Kelly - Editions 1972-2005 | Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland | Solo |
2006 | Ellsworth Kelly - Paris New York, 1949–1959 | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA | Solo |
2006 | Ellsworth Kelly in St Ives | Tate St. Ives, St. Ives, Cornwall | Solo |
2006 | Picasso to Pop: Aspects of Modern Art | The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT | Group |
2006 | A Show of Prints | James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2006 | Nothing and everything | Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group |
2006 | Modulated Abstraction | Brooke Alexander Editions, New York City, NY | Group |
2006 | Selected Works | John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group |
2006 | Twice Drawn | The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College,Saratoga Springs, NY | Group |
2006 | Minimalism: On and Off Paper | Vivian Horan Fine Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2006 | Small Sculptures | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2006 | Soulages, Kelly, Ryman | Galerie Lelong, Paris | Group |
2006 | Redefined | The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | Group |
2006 | Works on Paper | Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL | Group |
2006 | Pop Art 1960’s→2000’s - From Lichtenstein, Warhol To The Current Generation | Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo | Group |
2006 | Dark Matter | White Cube, London | Group |
2006 | Berlin-Tokyo Tokyo-Berlin. Die Kunst zweier Städte | Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin | Group |
2006 | Select Views | The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD | Group |
2006 | Selections From The Werner H. Kramarsky Collection | Birmingham Museum of Art,Birmingham, AL | Group |
2006 | L´amateur d´estampes | MUba Eugène Leroy, Tourcoing | Group |
2006 | At Home - Recent Acquisitions | MMoCA - The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI | Group |
2006 | Homenaje a Chillida | Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao | Group |
2006 | Line and Surface - Works on Paper | Peter Blum Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2006 | Recent Drawings | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2006 | Presses, Pop, and Pomade: American Prints Since the Sixties | The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY | Group |
2005 | Forms and Color: Abstract Prints of Ellsworth Kelly | Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2005 | Ellsworth Kelly - Tablet | The Menil Collection, Houston, TX | Solo |
2005 | Ellsworth Kelly: Small Paintings, 1955 - 63 | Peter Freeman, Inc., New York City, NY | Solo |
2005 | Great Print Event III | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Group |
2005 | Spectrum | Galerie Lelong, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | Zoo Story: An exhibition of animals in art - for the young and the young at heart | Fisher Landau Center For Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | For Meyer Schapiro - A portfolio of 12 | Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI | Group |
2005 | That 70's Show - Gemini G.E.L. | Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | PERFECT PAINTING | Langen Foundation, Neuss | Group |
2005 | BIG BANG | Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris | Group |
2005 | Breaking Ground | The Horticultural Society of New York Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | Ripe for Picking - Fruit & Flowers | Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | Minimalism and Beyond | The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Saint Louis, MO | Group |
2005 | Recent Acquisitions - From the Grunwald Center | Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA | Group |
2005 | Elemental | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2005 | Quartet - Johns, Kelly, Mitchell, Motherwell | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2005 | Group Show - Gemini G.E.L. | Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | 40 grafica opera prima | Milan Dobes Museum, Bratislava | Group |
2005 | Amish Quilts: Kaleidoscope of Color | From the Collection of Faith and Stephen B - Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO | Group |
2005 | Memoire de la liberte | Galerie tazl., Weiz | Group |
2005 | Leporello, Een reis door de collectie | Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam | Group |
2005 | Wahlverwandtschaften | Städel Museum, Frankfurt | Group |
2005 | Major Prints | John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group |
2005 | Counting the Ways: Word As Image | Fisher Landau Center For Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2005 | Recent Editions from Gemini G.E.L. | Greenfield Sacks Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | Group |
2005 | Sets, Series, and Suites: Contemporary Prints | MFA - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | Group |
2005 | EXIT- Ausstieg aus dem Bild | ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe,Karlsruhe | Group |
2004 | Ellsworth Kelly: New Editions | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2004 | Ellsworth Kelly in Dallas | Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX | Solo |
2004 | Great Print Event II | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Group |
2004 | Human Presence: Works from the Museum´s Collection | San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA | Group |
2004 | Suites - From the Permanent Collection | University Museum of Contemporary Art - UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA | Group |
2004 | Artists coming together | James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2004 | Retro | Fries Museum, Leeuwarden | Group |
2004 | Monocromos | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid | Group |
2004 | Beyond Geometry - Experiments in Form 1940s−70s | Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA, Los Angeles, CA | Group |
2004 | Modern Means: Continuity and Change in Art from 1880 to the Present | Mori Art Museum,Tokyo | Group |
2004 | Toward Abstraction | IKON Ltd, Santa Monica, CA | Group |
2004 | Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) - Art from 1951 to the Present | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, NY | Group |
2003 | Ellsworth Kelly - Red Green Blue | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY | Solo |
2003 | Ellsworth Kelly - Recent Painting and Sculpture | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street,New York City, NY | Solo |
2003 | Ellsworth Kelly: Self-Portrait Drawings 1944-1992 | Matthew Marks Gallery - 521 West 21th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2003 | Ellsworth Kelly - Red Green Blue | MFAH - Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX | Solo |
2003 | ELLSWORTH KELLY: RED GREEN BLUE | Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - MCASD La Jolla, La Jolla, CA | Solo |
2003 | Fresh: Works on Paper, a Fifth Anniversary Exhibition | James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2003 | Great Print Event | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Group |
2003 | Fine Lines: Drawings from the Collection of Wynn Kramarsky | Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), Santa Barbara, CA | Group |
2003 | The Spirit of White | Galerie Beyeler, Basel | Group |
2003 | Drawing Modern - Works from the Agnes Gund Collection | The Cleveland Museum of Art,Cleveland, OH | Group |
2003 | Einbildung | Kunsthaus Graz, Graz | Group |
2003 | Sculpture | Matthew Marks Gallery - 522 West 22th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2003 | Pencil: Drawings from the Collection | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2003 | Game over | Andreas Grimm - München, Munich | Group |
2003 | Roads Taken: 20th Century Prints and Drawings from the Collection | The Fralin Museum of Art - University of Virginia Art Museums, Charlottesville, VA | Group |
2003 | Vincent van Gogh and the contemporary art | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam | Group |
2003 | Hand-made Minimal | Peter Freeman, Inc., New York City, NY | Group |
2003 | Elemental - Selections from the permanent collection | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2003 | Not Exactly Photographs | Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly - Obra Gráfica | La Caja Negra, Madrid | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly - Works 1956-2002 | Fondation Beyeler, Riehen | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly in San Francisco | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly - Works on Paper 1959-2002 | John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly - Tablet 1948 - 1973 | Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne | Solo |
2002 | Selected Works by Ellsworth Kelly from Saint Louis Collections | The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Saint Louis, MO | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly: New Lithographs | Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas, TX | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly, Tablet: 1949–1973 | The Drawing Center, New York City, NY | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly: Ten New Lithographs | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2002 | Ellsworth Kelly - New Editions | Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2002 | Works on Paper | The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Portland, OR | Group |
2002 | Merce Cunningham Foundation Benefit 50th Anniversary Art Sale | Paula Cooper Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2002 | An American Legacy, A Gift to New York | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2002 | All American, Part II | Van Doren Waxter, New York City, NY | Group |
2002 | True Blue | Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA | Group |
2002 | Pas de deux | Fries Museum, Leeuwarden | Group |
2002 | New Editions - Gemini G.E.L. | Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Group |
2002 | Ferus | Gagosian Gallery , New York City, NY | Group |
2002 | The New York School: Abstract Expressionism and Beyond | UMMA - The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI | Group |
2002 | Impressions | Galerie Beyeler, Basel | Group |
2002 | American Beauty | Annely Juda Fine Art, London | Group |
2002 | Color Field: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston | MFAH - Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX | Group |
2002 | Henri Matisse Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Drawings | Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO | Group |
2002 | Images of Nature | MFA - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | Group |
2002 | Flatline | Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | Group |
2002 | Memoir of Freedom | CAM - Chelsea Art Museum, New York City, NY | Group |
2002 | Henri Matisse , Ellsworth Kelly : dessins de plantes | Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris | Group |
2001 | Ellsworth Kelly - Posters, 1951-2001 | Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York City, NY | Solo |
2001 | Ellsworth Kelly - Blue | White Cube, London | Solo |
2001 | Ellsworth Kelly - Gray 1975-77 | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Solo |
2001 | Claude Monet und die Moderne | Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich | Group |
2001 | Tenth Anniversary Exhibition - 100 Drawings and Photographs | Matthew Marks Gallery - 523 West 24th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2001 | Vital forms - American Art in the anatomic age, 1940-1960 | Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2001 | A defining generation. Then and Now. 1961 and 2001 | The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA | Group |
2001 | Monets Vermächtnis - Serie - Ordnung und Obsession | Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg | Group |
2001 | Early Modern Art | The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA | Group |
2001 | Fourth International Biennial Exhibition: Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism | Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2001 | SITE Santa Fe's Fourth International Biennial | SITElines, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2001 | Minimalismos. Un signo de los tiempos | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid | Group |
2001 | Paper Invitational IV | Woodward Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2001 | De Artaud ... à Twombly | Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris | Group |
2001 | Light and Movement of the Century Abstract Art | Gallery Hyundai, Seoul | Group |
2001 | Ornament und Abstraktion | Fondation Beyeler, Riehen | Group |
2001 | Prints by Painters: American Abstractions | Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA | Group |
2001 | Drawing is Another Kind of Language | Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI | Group |
2001 | Eye of Modernism | Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM | Group |
2001 | The Draftsman's Colors | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2001 | Rotating Group Exhibition | Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City, NY | Group |
2000 | Ellsworth Kelly - Colors and Curves | John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Solo |
2000 | Ellsworth Kelly - The Early Drawings 1948-1955 | Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn | Solo |
2000 | Ellsworth Kelly - the early drawings, 1948 - 1955 | Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus & Kunstbau, Munich | Solo |
2000 | Ellsworth Kelly: New Lithographs | Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York City, NY | Solo |
2000 | Ellsworth Kelly - the early drawings, 1948 - 1955 | Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur | Solo |
2000 | Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts Benefit Exhibition | Matthew Marks Gallery - 522 West 22th Street, New York City, NY | Group |
2000 | CROSS SECTION - WORKS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION, 1962-2000 | Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - MCASD Downtown, San Diego, CA | Group |
2000 | In Process | Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2000 | The Cities Collect | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2000 | Century of Innocence – The History of the White Monochrome | Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö | Group |
2000 | Portraits of Leo | Leo Castelli Gallery, New York City, NY | Group |
2000 | Modernism & Abstraction - Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum | Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME | Group |
2000 | State of the Art: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group |
2000 | Body of Painting | Museum Ludwig,Cologne | Group |
2000 | Art concret | Espace de l’art concret, Mouans Sartoux | Group |
2000 | Flora | Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QC | Group |
2000 | Farbe > Licht | Fondation Beyeler, Riehen | Group |
2000 | Persuasive Images: Selections from the Art Collections at the University at Albany | University Art Museum University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY | Group |