White Curve V

Date1973

Maker Ellsworth Kelly American, 1923 - 2015

Label TextWhile Kelly's works might appear to be purely nonrepresentational compositions of shape and color, they are in fact distillations of forms found in the natural and man-made world. Depending on one's perspective, the black and white parts of the canvas project or recede, altering one's interpretation of the image-the white form could, for example, be a close up detail of the moon against a black sky.

Object number76.10

ProvenanceLeo Castelli Gallery, New York City; purchased by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, gift of Bagley and Virginia Wright (by exchange) with funds from the Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund and the National Endowment for the , 1976

Exhibition HistoryAmsterdam, Netherlands, Stedelijk Museum, Ellsworth Kelly, Dec. 13, 1979 - Feb. 3, 1980 (London, England, Hayward Gallery, Feb. 27 - Apr. 7, 1980; Paris, France, Centre Georges Pompidou, Apr. 23 - June 15, 1980; Baden, Germany, Staatliche Kunsthalle, July 5 - Sept. 7, 1980). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Minimalism: Aftermath and Affinities, Mar. 27 - Aug. 25, 1996. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, in collaboration with the Shaker Museum and Library, Old Chatham, New York, Creating Perfection: Shaker Objects and Their Affinities, Oct. 5, 2000 - Apr. 29, 2001. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, International Abstraction: Making Painting Real, May 2, 2003 - Feb. 29, 2004 [on view Aug. 15, 2003 - Feb. 29, 2004]. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Tack and Jibe, Nov. 21, 2008 - June 29, 2009. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, From Abstract Expression to Colored Planes, Mar. 16, 2013 - Aug. 1, 2015. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Big Picture: Art After 1945, July 23, 2016 - May 16, 2021 [on view July 23 - Nov. 6, 2016]. Published ReferencesYoung, Tara, "SAM Collects: Contemporary Art Project" 2002, Seattle Art Museum, 2002, pg. 29 Illustrated on cover of E.C. Goossen's "Ellsworth Kelly" New York: Museum of Modern Art (1973), shown upside down

Credit LineGift of Virginia and Bagley Wright (by exchange) with funds from the Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund and with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts

Dimensions93 1/4 × 91 1/8 in. (236.9 × 231.5cm)

MediumOil on canvas