Ellsworth Kelly: The Early Drawings, 1948-1955

During his expatriate years in France (1948-54), Ellsworth Kelly developed the visual strategies that would make him one of the most important artists of our era. This is most evident in his French drawings, here presented thoroughly for the first time, together with a searching commentary by noted scholar Yve-Alain Bois. In drawing, Kelly evolved four strategies for making art: transfer, chance, modular grid, and monochrome panel. His goal was to develop an alternative to traditional composition at once radically inventive and stubbornly personal. This bi-lingual German/English catalog presents an intimate view of the process of artistic conception.