Description
“Blue for Leo” by Ellsworth Kelly – From the portfolio titled “Leo Castelli’s 90th Birthday Portfolio” printed by Noblet Serigraphie (NY) and published by Jean-Christophe Castelli (NY).
Annotation
“Blue for Leo” is a 1997 screenprint on heavy paper by Ellsworth Kelly which is part of a contemporary suite by notable artists. Leo Castelli’s 90th Birthday portfolio in tribute to the iconic art dealer who played a pivotal role in postwar American art’s rise to international dominance. “Blue for Leo” is signed and numbered in the edition of 90 + 90 roman numeral edition + Artist Proofs and Printers Proofs.
About Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly was an eminent American artist known for his abstract paintings. His use of bright colors, and simple shapes, contributed to the discourse of 20th-century painting. “I have worked to free shape from its ground, and then to work the shape so that it has a definite relationship to the space around it,” he once explained. “So that it has a clarity and a measure within itself of its parts (angles, curves, edges, and mass); and so that, with color and tonality, the shape finds its own space and always demands its freedom and separateness.” Born on May 31, 1923, in Newburgh, NY, he went on to study technical drawing and design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
He returned to New York in 1952 and established himself alongside Frank Stella and Al Held in rejecting the gestural brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism with his pared-down Color-Field paintings. He died on December 27, 2015, at the age of 92 in Spencertown, NY.
Museum Collections
- MOCA, Los Angeles
- MOMA, NYC
- Tate Gallery, London
- National Gallery of Art, DC