Ellsworth Kelly

Two Panels: Yellow with Large Blue

1970

Deriving his subjects from nature and the world around him, Ellsworth Kelly distills and reformats them into non-referential abstract paintings. He emphasizes frontality and flatness in his work, while continually experimenting with color and form to examine spatial relationships and perceptions. “My work is about structure,” he stated. For Two Panels: Yellow with Large Blue, he joined a pair of rectangular canvases to create a shifting focus from color to shape and shape to color. The abutment of the variously sized panels and the juxtaposition of their warm and cool shades thwarts the tendency to want to visualize a conventional rectangle.

Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923, Newburgh, New York; lives and works in Spencertown, New York)
Two Panels: Yellow with Large Blue, 1970
Oil on canvas
103 x 109 in.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Barry Lowen Collection