Page 57 - Studio International - July 1965

various colour areas, these paintings would be little Much of the effect of structured, animated form is
more than skilfully contrived ornamental surfaces. achieved through choice of colour. Kelly has unerring
I think Kelly's paintings are compelling because no instinct. His reds, blues, greens and oranges are always
single form is inert. When he paints an elongated oval (or appear to be) mixed. He paints with oil on canvas
and rests it in a vertical rectangle, the curved edges of and can give a sense of enclosed life by means of the
the oval contain enormous massed energy. If that oval density of his colour. One of the salient virtues of the
is bright orange, sunk into a blue field, it is even more exhibition is the full intensity, the vital body of the
tautly dynamic. It expresses and symbolizes vitality. colour. It is much richer, more vibrant than any plastic
When Kelly places two enormous half-circles back to paint could be and gives a reality to the surface lacking
back-one blue, one grass green-so that their edges in the shriller synthetic paints.
barely touch at a miniscule point, they are drawn to By his invention of pure and eloquent shapes, Kelly
suggest not flat, quasi-geometric shapes, but rather, controls the energy of his high-keyed colours. If certain
expanding, spherical forms with dynamic interior compositions strain to the edge and others concentrate
structures. Seen in one focus, the dense red field in on a central void, it is because colour is vitally linked
which they press their shapes tends to push them back, with shape.
to flatten them. Seen in another focus, the red takes its I am not trying to separate the two functions unduly.
Ellsworth Kelly
Blue, Green, Red I. 1965 place as a form. If the cliche 'negative space· covers this Obviously they are mutually influential and so intimately
108 X 1 22 in. equivocal and interesting visual situation, let us use it. linked that analysis tends to be untruth. Yet, I think it is
Sidney Janis Gallery
41