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Melissa Avery

Spotted

Ellsworth Kelly — The Chicago Panels
Ellsworth Kelly

The Chicago Panels

1989

Part of Ellsworth Kelly's monumental suite 'The Chicago Panels' (1989–1999), this red panel is one of six architectural reliefs conceived for the Art Institute of Chicago's Rice Building. Reduced to a single chromatic field with irregular contours and commanding scale, the work embodies Kelly's lifelong ambition to bring painting into direct contact with architecture — treating color as structure, shape as interval, and wall as field. The acrylic on fiberglass and plywood construction gives the color an object-like, architectural body that shifts from isolated form to spatial rhythm as the viewer moves. A highlight of the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection, this series represents one of the most lucid realizations of Kelly's vision for painting to accompany modern architecture.

Medium
Acrylic on fiberglass and plywood
Dimensions

Notes

Suite of six monumental reliefs (black, red, yellow, blue, orange, and green) conceived for the museum's Rice Building. Dimensions across the suite range from 189.5 × 212.3 cm to 269.8 × 208 cm. Images courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Source: zeitcontemporaryart Instagram/post.

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About this work

Ellsworth Kelly, The Chicago Panels, 1989

Part of Ellsworth Kelly's monumental suite 'The Chicago Panels' (1989–1999), this red panel is one of six architectural reliefs conceived for the Art Institute of Chicago's Rice Building. Reduced to a single chromatic field with irregular contours and commanding scale, the work embodies Kelly's lifelong ambition to bring painting into direct contact with architecture — treating color as structure, shape as interval, and wall as field. The acrylic on fiberglass and plywood construction gives the color an object-like, architectural body that shifts from isolated form to spatial rhythm as the viewer moves. A highlight of the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection, this series represents one of the most lucid realizations of Kelly's vision for painting to accompany modern architecture.

Medium
Acrylic on fiberglass and plywood
Dimensions
269.748 x 208.026 cm
Year
1989
Seen at
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Related themes

Geometric, 20th Century, Blue Chip, Vibrant, Architectural, American, Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, Large Format, Abstract, Painting, Minimalism

More works by Ellsworth Kelly

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro, Sebastián In Situ, Melissa Avery, Hamilton Selway Gallery, Carolyn Lynx, Sharrissa Iqbal, Art Institute of Chicago