Exhibition - Ellsworth Kelly: Reflections on Water and Other Early Drawings

This installation celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ellsworth Kelly’s birth by showcasing an extraordinary group of early drawings on loan from Jack Shear. The show includes works on paper from the radically innovative period when Kelly lived in Paris (1948–54) and several from later years including drawings for his steel sculpture Curve (1973), currently on display in the museum’s Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden. Reflections on Water and Other Early Drawings also richly illuminates the installation in adjacent gallery 275, Ellsworth Kelly: Paris/New York, 1949–1956, dedicated to the artist‘s early paintings. Together, the twin installations explore the foundations of Kelly’s evolving vision, one that would distinguish him as one of the most important artists of the postwar period.