Green White

Ellsworth Kelly, American, 1923 - 2015

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1961

Oil on canvas

Overall: 70 1/8 × 60 5/16 in. (178.1 × 153.2 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Julian J. and Joachim Jean Aberbach

© Ellsworth Kelly

P.962.44

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Painting

Research Area

Painting

Not on view

Inscriptions

Verso: Inscribed, in black marker, on canvas return, top left: 263 70" x 60"; initialled and dated, in black marker, on canvas return, along top right: EK 61

Label

My forms are geometric, but they don’t interact in a geometric sense. They’re just forms that exist everywhere, even if you don’t see them. -- Ellsworth Kelly

The organic shape of the white form at the center of this painting recalls the artist’s delicate, representational drawings of floral subjects—and for good reason. Kelly based his work on observations he made in nature. In his paintings, he focused on the space around objects. His use of lyrical, flat shapes silhouetted against brightly colored backgrounds allowed him to focus on both the essence of natural forms and how they evoke emotions.

From the 2023 exhibition The Painter's Hand: U.S. Abstraction since 1950, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director

Course History

Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Daniele Genadry, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 22, 1999-September 17, 2000.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 18-June 22, 1997.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 26-May 15, 2002.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 29-September 4, 2005.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31, 1992-September 7, 1993.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College,Hanover, New Hampshire, March 29-July 15, 1994.

Contemporary Art From the Dartmouth College Collection, Jaffe-Friede Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 24-March 2, 1975.

Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, December 2, 1968.

Director's Choice, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10-July 10, 1966.

Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October-November 26, 2012.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.

Selections: Contemporary Art, Jaffe-Friede Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 12, 1975-January 11, 1976.

The Expanding Universe of Postwar Art, Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-April 7, 2019.

The Painter's Hand: U.S. Abstraction since 1950, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe-Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 3-December 16, 2023.

The Protean Century, 1870-1970, A Loan Exhibition from The Dartmouth College Collection, Alumni and Friends of the College [under the auspices of the Dartmouth Arts Council], M. Knoedler & Company, Inc, New York, New York, February 10-28, 1970.

The Second Stage of Modernism: Art from 1945 to the Present, William B. Jaffe, Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall, Churchill P. Lathrop, Friends, and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 6-August 16, 1987.

Top of the Hop, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 1979.

Two Generations of Post-War Art, Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, November 11-December 2, 1966.

Publication History

The Protean Century, 1870-1970, Hanover, New Hampshire: The Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1970, no. 27.

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.49, no.25.

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 169, ill. plate no. 100.

Provenance

Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, New York; sold to Joachim Jean Aberbach, New York, New York, June 25, 1962; Julian J. Aberbach (1909-2004) and Joachim Jean Aberbach (1910-1992), New York, New York; given to present collection, 1962.

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