New York City Mayor Eric Adams officially proclaimed today, May 31, Ellsworth Kelly Day.
The special designation comes after a coalition of local institutions – the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art – came together to call on the mayor’s office to honor the late artist on what would have been his 100e anniversary.
“In recognition of the many creative geniuses who have contributed to our stellar status as an internationally acclaimed cultural destination, I am pleased to shine the spotlight on the late Ellsworth Kelly whose imagination, perspective and skill emboldened abstract artists around the world and have positively transformed our creative landscape,” Adams wrote in his proclamation.
“Kelly’s enduring vision is inimitable,” the Mayor continued, “and at today’s event recognizing what would have been his 100th birthday, I am pleased to salute his resolute passion and his imprint indelible on the five boroughs and beyond.”
Kelly, who died in 2015, grew up in the small town of Newburgh, NY, and lived his last decades in Spencertown, also upstate. Between these two periods, he spent 15 years in New York, during which he mastered the colour-obsessed, cutting edge style that would become his signature.
Ellsworth Kelly Day arrives amid ambitious nationwide campaign centenary celebration for the pioneering painter, organized by his foundation.
In New York, the MoMA is offering two exhibitions dedicated to the artist:A centenary celebration,which includes three works by Kelly from the institution’s permanent collection, and “Ellsworth Kelly’s Sketchbooks», which brings together 25 preparatory blocks by the artist, all recently donated to the institution by his widower, Jack Shear.
Elsworth Kelly, Untitled (1982) at Lever House, 2023. Photo: Timothy Schenck.
Meanwhile, Lever House, an office building in midtown Manhattan, kicked off its own exhibition program with a year-long public presentation of Kelly’s sculptures and models. It is visible free of charge inside and outside the property.
The artist’s celebration also extends well beyond his country of origin. The Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland, has mounted “Ellsworth Kelly at 100», a major survey of the painter’s career and his contributions to American abstraction. In July, the Art Institute of Chicago will show “Ellsworth Kelly Portrait Drawings», a presentation of 95 intimate portraits he made between 1944 and 2002, most of which have never been seen publicly.
Other concurrent Kelly shows are at the Blanton Museum of Art, the Edward Hopper House Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay one step ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive breaking news, revealing interviews and incisive reviews that move the conversation forward.
