White Curve V

1973

American, 1923 - 2015

While 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.

Oil on canvas

93 1/4 × 91 1/8 in. (236.9 × 231.5cm)

Gift 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

76.10

Provenance: Leo 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

Not currently on view

Resources

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

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