Ellsworth Kelly is regarded as one of the most important abstract painters, sculptors and printmakers working today. Spanning seven decades, his career is marked by the independent route his art has taken from any formal school or art movement and by his innovative contribution to 20th century painting and sculpture. Kelly draws on the connection between abstraction and nature from which he extrapolates forms and colors. Since the beginning of his career, Kelly’s emphasis on pure form and color and his impulse to suppress gesture in favor of creating spatial unity have played a pivotal role in the development of abstract art in America.
Kelly’s first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Arnaud in Paris in 1951. His retrospective exhibitions include Ellsworth Kelly at the Museum of Modern Art in 1973; Ellsworth Kelly Recent Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979; Ellsworth Kelly Sculpture in 1982 at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Saint Louis Art Museum; and Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective in 1996 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tate, London and the Haus der Kunst in Munich.
Recent exhibitions include Ellsworth Kelly Black and White at the Haus der Kunst and the Museum Wiesbaden; Ellsworth Kelly Plant Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebaek and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture on the Wall at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; and Ellsworth Kelly: The Chatham Series at the Museum of Modern Art; Monet/Kelly at The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Ellsworth Kelly Last Paintings at Matthew Marks Gallery.
Kelly has received honorary doctoral degrees from Pratt Institute, Bard College, Harvard University, Williams College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Brandeis University, and the Royal College of Art, London. Among numerous awards received are Japan’s Praemium Imperiale Award in 2000, Officier de la Legion d’Honneur presented by President of France Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, and the National Medal of Arts presented by President of the United States Barack Obama in 2012.
1923
Born Newburgh, New York, May 31.
1941-42
Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
1943
Drafted into the United States Army; serves in 603rd Camouflage Engineer Battalion.
1944-45
To England, Normandy landings and invasion of Europe. Visits Paris for the first time.
1946-48
Studies drawing and painting at the Boston Museum School. Lives and teaches art at Norfolk House Center, Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Wins competition with Self-portrait with Bugle for summer fellowship at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, spring 1947.
Exhibits in first group show at Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, fall 1947.
Travels to France, fall 1948 and remains there until June 1954.
1948-49
Visits Gruenwald’s Isenheim Altarpiece in Colmar and sites of Romanesque painting and sculpture. Paints in Brittany, summer 1949. Completes his first multipanel painting.
Enrolls at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Moves to Hôtel de Bourgogne on Île Saint-Louis. Meets Jack Youngerman, Michel Seuphor and Jean Arp. Spends first winter in the south at Sanary and Antibes. Employed by Marshall Plan at the Hôtel de Talleyrand, Paris.
1950-51
Exhibits in first group show in Europe at Galerie Beaux-Arts. Also included in exhibitions at Palais des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and Galerie Maeght, all in Paris, France.
Teaches at the American School, Paris, France. Visits the studios of Brancusi, Vantongerloo, Picabia, Magnelli, Arp and Sophie Tauber-Arp. Meets Alexander Calder through Henry Seyrig and Jack Youngerman.
First solo exhibition at Galerie Arnaud in Paris, spring 1951.
Exhibits La Combe III in first museum exhibition at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, summer 1951.
1951-52
Paints in the south of France.
1952
Visits Monet’s studio at Giverny and sees all the late Nymphéas. Meets Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miro.
1954
Returns to the United States and moves into Broad Street studio in lower Manhattan, New York.
1956
Moves to Coenties Slip studio, summer 1956.
First solo show in the United States at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York (also 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1963).
1957
First sculpture commission for lobby of the Transportation Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1998).
Begins collaboration with Edison Price on fabrication of sculpture.
First museum purchase, painting, Atlantic, by Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
1958
Solo exhibition at Galerie Maeght in Paris (also 1964 and 1965).
1959
Exhibits first sculpture at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York.
Included in Sixteen Americans, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1961
Receives Fourth Painting Prize for Block Island II at Carnegie International Exhibition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1962
Receives Flora Mayer Witkowsky Prize, Art Institute of Chicago.
First solo exhibition in England at Arthur Tooth & Sons, London.
First acquisition by museum in the United Kingdom, the Tate Gallery acquires the painting, Broadway.
1963-64
Receives Brandeis Creative Arts Award, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
Receives Education Minister’s Award for Red White Blue at Seventh International Art Exhibition of Japan in Tokyo.
Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings by Ellsworth Kelly presented at Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, D.C. The exhibition is also shown at Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
1964
Receives Painting Prize for Blue Black Red at Carnegie International Exhibition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1965
Publishes two groups of lithographs with Maeght Éditeur, Paris, Suite of Twenty-Seven Color Lithographs and Suite of Twenty-Six Plant Lithographs.
First solo show at Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (also 1967, 1968, and 1971).
1966
Exhibits at American Pavilion, XXXIII Venice Biennale, Italy curated by Henry Geldzahler.
First solo show in Los Angeles at Ferus Gallery (which becomes Irving Blum Gallery, with exhibitions in 1967, 1968, and 1973).
1967
First purchase by European museum, sculpture Blue Red Rocker purchased by Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1968
Begins collaboration with Don Lippincott on fabrication of sculpture.
1969
Mural commissioned by UNESCO, Paris, France.
1970
Moves to upstate New York.
Begins printmaking collaboration with Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles.
1972
The Chatham Series: Paintings by Ellsworth Kelly presented at Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.
1973
First solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (also 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, and 1992).
The Museum of Modern Art, New York presents his first retrospective exhibition, Ellsworth Kelly, curated by Eugene C. Goossen, which travels to Pasadena Art Museum (now Norton Simon Museum of Art) in Pasadena, California, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan.
1974
Receives Bartel’s Award for Painting from the Art Institute of Chicago for White Curve III.
Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters (now the National Academy of Arts and Letters).
1975
First solo show at Blum Helman Gallery (also 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1998).
1976
Begins printmaking collaboration with Tyler Graphics in Katonah, New York.
1977
Begins collaboration with Peter Carlson of fabrication of wood and metal sculptures.
1979
Ellsworth Kelly Recent Paintings and Sculpture, is his first solo exhibition presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Exhibits with Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg in XXXVI American Biennial of Contemporary American Painting at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Color Panels for a Large Wall, a 125-foot-painting in eighteen panels, is commissioned for the new Central Trust Company of Cincinnati, Ohio designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Curve XXII, a 36-foot stainless steel totem, is commissioned for Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois.
Ellsworth Kelly, Recent Painting and Sculpture 1963-1979 presented at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, which travels in Europe to Hayworth Gallery in London; Centre Pompidou in Paris; and Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden, Germany.
1980
Made a fellow of Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.
1981
Receives Award for Sculpture from Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine.
1982
Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture, his first sculpture retrospective, is presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and at The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri.
1983
Sculpture commissioned for Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.
Sculpture, Curve XXVII, installed at Mies Van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois.
1984
A room of seven paintings is inaugurated at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The loan is extended until 1987.
1985
Sculptures commissioned by the City of Barcelona, Spain for two sites, General Moragues Plaza and El Parc de la Creueta del Coll.
1986
A room of eight paintings on loan for the inaugural opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Sculpture commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas for the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden.
Sculpture commissioned by architect I. M. Pei for Raffles Hotel in Singapore.
1987
Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper, his first drawing retrospective, presented at Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, travels extensively, including Canada (Toronto) and Europe (Amsterdam).
Ellsworth Kelly: A Print Retrospective, organized by the American Federation of Arts in conjunction with The Prints of Ellsworth Kelly: A Catalogue Raisonné by Richard Axsom, is presented at The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan and travels extensively throughout the United States.
Awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic at the French Cultural Embassy, New York.
1988
Sculpture commissioned for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Sculpture commission for the Ryda and Robert H. Levi Sculpture Garden at The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.
1989
Ellsworth Kelly: Courtyard Installation at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.
Sculpture commissioned by I. M. Pei for the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, Texas.
1990
Invited to curate the Artist’s Choice Series at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. “Fragmentation and the Single Form” by Kelly is published for the exhibition.
Installation of “Yellow Curve”, his first large painted floor sculpture, at Portikus am Main, Frankfurt, Germany.
Sculpture commissioned for corporate headquarters of Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland.
1991
Ellsworth Kelly: At Right Angles, 1964-66 at Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles, John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, and Paula Cooper Gallery in New York.
1992
Installation of paintings at Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany, subsequently exhibited at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, are acquired by the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany.
Ellsworth Kelly: The Years in France, 1948-1954, curated by Yve-Alain Bois is presented at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster.
Awarded the Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic, Paris, France.
First solo exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery (on Madison Avenue) in New York (also 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001).
Installs first floor piece in the United States at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York.
1993
Presented the Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur by the French Republic at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Sculpture commissioned for Carré d’Art, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nîmes, France.
Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, acquires room of four paintings for permanent collection.
Presented with the Institute Medal, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
Awarded Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
New Displays: Ellsworth Kelly, Tate Gallery, London, England.
Awarded title of Friend of Barcelona and medal by H. E. Pasqual Maragall, Mayor of Barcelona, in New York.
1994
Invited to install room of paintings at the Eli Broad Family Foundation in Santa Monica, California.
Curve VIII included in Twentieth Century American Sculpture at the White House, inaugural sculpture installation curated by George W. Neubert at the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.
Presented 50th Anniversary Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty by the Governor of Normandy and the President of the Regional Council of Basse-Normandy, France.
Spencertown: Recent Paintings by Ellsworth Kelly presented at Anthony d’Offay, London and at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
1995
Sculpture commissioned for John J. Moakely Federal Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts (completed in 1998).
Tate Gallery in London, England, acquires two paintings and a sculpture for the museum’s permanent collection.
1996
Honored by Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York at the Mary Buckley Scholarship Dinner.
Sculpture commissioned for Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan.
Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, New York.
Awarded Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
Awarded the first Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts on the 125th anniversary of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.
Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective curated by Diane Waldman, at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, travels to Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Tate Gallery, London, and Haus der Kunst, Munich.
1997
Presentation of print edition to Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies at White House ceremony, Washington, D.C.
Presented with Annual Tribute Award of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies, U.S. State Department, Washington, D.C.
Awarded Honorary Doctorate by Royal College of Art, London, England.
Work included in the inaugural exhibition of Sintra Museu de Arte Moderno, Lisbon, Portugal.
Work included in the inaugural exhibition of Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain.
Work included in the inaugural exhibition of Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland.
Installation at ambassador’s residence of the American Embassy in Paris, France.
1998
Ellsworth Kelly: On the Roof, The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sculpture commissioned for Paul-Löbe-Haus of the Deutscher Bundestag in Berlin (completed in 2002).
Ellsworth Kelly: Recent Prints, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, travels to New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut; Newcomb Gallery of Art, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana; Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska.
Awarded New York State Governor’s Arts Award, New York State Council on the Arts, presented at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York.
1999
Ellsworth Kelly: The Early Drawings 1948-1955 curated by Yve-Alain Bois at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, travels extensively in the United States and Europe.
Ellsworth Kelly in conversation with Marla Prather, 1999 Elson Lecture at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Ellsworth Kelly: Spectrums at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery in New York.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquires 21 paintings and sculptures, including Spectrum Colors Arranged by Chance, 1951-53; Cité, 1951; Blue Red, 1966; Stele I, 1975; and Untitled (Mandorla), 1988.
Ellsworth Kelly: Five Decades of Line, Form and Color is shown at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington.
Ellsworth Kelly – “Sculpture for a Large Wall” and Other Recent Acquisitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Awarded The Edward MacDowell Medal at The MacDowell Colony, St. Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Art Institute of Chicago acquires Chicago Panels, six wall sculpture panels installed in the Rice Wing of the museum.
Presented Smithsonian Institution Award at Archives of American Art: A Salute to Ellsworth Kelly in conjunction with exhibition, Ellsworth Kelly: Selections from his Archives at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art Gallery in New York.
2000
Works included in inaugural exhibition of the Tate Modern, London.
Sculpture included in inaugural exhibition of La sculpture contemporaine au jardin des Tuileries, Paris.
Presented the Praemium Imperiale for Painting by the Japan Art Association on behalf of the Japanese Imperial Family in Tokyo.
2001
The Museum of Modern Art, New York acquires 40 works from the 1951 proposed artist book, Line Form Color.
Appointed Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Artist Honoree, Cultural Leadership Award of the American Federation of Arts, New York.
Sculpture commissioned for the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis.
2002
Henri Matisse / Ellsworth Kelly: dessins de plantes exhibition presented at Centre George Pompidou, Paris and the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri.
Selected Works by Ellsworth Kelly from Saint Louis Collections at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis, Missouri.
Presented Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic.
Whitney Museum of American Art acquires four major works, including La Combe I.
Ellsworth Kelly: Tablet 1948-1973 exhibited at The Drawing Center, New York and Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ellsworth Kelly in San Francisco at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Ellsworth Kelly: Works 1956-2002 at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel, Switzerland.
2003
Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue, Paintings and Studies 1958-1965 presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Ellsworth Kelly Matrix and Ellsworth Kelly: Self Portrait Drawings from 1944-1992 shown at Matthew Marks Gallery.
FAPE (Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies) commissions sculpture for the United States Embassy in Beijing designed by architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Beijing Panels is presented to First Lady Laura Bush and administration staff at the White House.
Whitney Museum of American Art Gala celebrates the artist’s 80th birthday.
Awarded Honorary Doctorate, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2004
Ellsworth Kelly in Dallas at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.
Exhibited in Robert Ryman, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Gerhard Richter at the Art Institute of Chicago.
2005
Ellsworth Kelly: Tablet, 188 pages of sketches from 1947 to 1973, presented at The Menil Collection, Houston (acquired in 2004).
Awarded Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. acquires Color Panels for a Large Wall, 1978.
High Museum of Art, Atlanta commissions sculpture Blue Green Red for museum lobby designed by architect Renzo Piano.
2006
Ellsworth Kelly at St. Ives at Tate St. Ives in Cornwall.
Ellsworth Kelly New Works at Serpentine Gallery, first exhibition of major works in London since 1996 retrospective.
Ellsworth Kelly Paris – New York 1949-1954 at Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Exhibited in Cézanne: mythe et pélerins at Galerie d’art du Conseil Général des Bouches du Rhône, Marseilles in Aix en Provence.
2006
Ellsworth Kelly at St. Ives at Tate St. Ives in Cornwall.
Ellsworth Kelly New Works at Serpentine Gallery, first exhibition of major works in London since 1996 retrospective.
Ellsworth Kelly Paris – New York 1949-1954 at Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Exhibited in Cézanne: mythe et pélerins at Galerie d’art du Conseil Général des Bouches du Rhône, Marseilles in Aix en Provence.
2007
Focus: Ellsworth Kelly at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Front Room: Ellsworth Kelly at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.
Exhibited in the 52nd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy curated by Robert Storr.
Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments, film premiere by Checkerboard Film Foundation.
Receives Lifetime Achievement Award by Americans for the Arts, New York.
Exhibited in Art in America: Three Hundred Years of Innovation at Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain.
2008
Exhibited in Broad Contemporary Art Museum Inaugural Exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California.
Sculpture commissioned by FAPE (Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies) for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany.
Exhibited in Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today at Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.
Exhibited in Fernand Léger Retrospective at Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel, Switzerland.
Commissioned by FAPE (Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies) for The Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy Through the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Ellsworth Kelly Plant Lithographs presented at Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Exhibited in Correspondances at Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Exhibited in 75 Years of Looking Forward at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Received Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Society of the French Legion of Honor.
2009
Exhibited in Cézanne and Beyond at Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Art Institute of Chicago commissions sculpture, White Curve, for the terrace of the museum’s new wing designed by Renzo Piano.
Ellsworth Kelly: Diagonal at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
Promoted to the rank of Officier by the French Republic.
Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings 1954-1964 presented at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in Middlesbrough, England and at The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.
2010
Exhibited in Monet and Abstraction at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain.
Exhibited in John Cage & Experimental Art: the Anarchy of Silence at Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain.
Awarded Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
2011
Ellsworth Kelly: Reliefs 2009 – 2010 and Ellsworth Kelly: Black and White Drawings at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
Exhibited in Malevich and the American Legacy at Gagosian Gallery, New York.
Ellsworth Kelly Black & White presented in Germany at the Haus der Kunst, Munich and the Museum Wiesbaden.
Receives 2011 Jawlensky Prize for Painting awarded by the Museum Wiesbaden. Donates Award funds to the Museum Wiesbaden’s conservation department to restore The Wiesbaden Visitation (c.1520) by Alberto Piazza da Lodi (Meister der Wiesbadener Heimsuchung).
Ellsworth Kelly Plant Drawings, featuring 100 of the artist’s favorite plant drawings, is presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, and the Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebaek, Denmark. A book is published by Schirmer Mosel to coincide with the exhibition.
2012
Sculpture commissioned for the façade of Matthew Marks Gallery’s new building in Los Angeles is based on his 1952 collage, Black over White; the inaugural exhibition at the Los Angeles venue features paintings, sculptures and drawings from 1952 to 2011.
Curves on White (Four Panels), 2012 presented as first solo exhibition at Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris.
Presented in the relaunch of Cahiers d’Art (the Paris revue published by Christian Zervos from 1932-1970) and in the debut exhibition at Cahiers d’Art, Paris, which includes a selection of Kelly’s collection of ancient bannerstones and birdstones.
Ellsworth Kelly: Prints and Paintings at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Ellsworth Kelly Sculpture at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.
The Prints of Ellsworth Kelly: A Catalogue Raisonné, a revised second edition in two volumes by Rick Axsom, is published by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation with Marquand Books.
Dartmouth Panels at Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire are commissioned by Leon and Debra Black.
Barnes Totem inaugural installation coincides with opening of the Barnes Foundation new museum in Philadelphia.
2013
Receives College Art Association Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Collaborates with Calvin Klein and Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute to reproduce his 1951 dress as a special edition.
Ellsworth Kelly: Singular Forms 1966-2009 at Mnuchin Gallery in New York.
Ellsworth Kelly at Ninety at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.
Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Ellsworth Kelly Sculpture on the Wall is the first contemporary exhibition held at the Barnes Foundation.
Ellsworth Kelly: Panel Paintings 2004-2009 at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.
Presented National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama at the White House.
Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
2014
Sculpture commissions, Color Panels (Red Yellow Blue Green Purple) and Spectrum VIII, included in inaugural opening of the Fondation Louis Vuitton museum in Paris designed by architect Frank Gehry.
Monet | Kelly curated by Kelly presented exclusively at Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts features late paintings of Money juxtaposed with works of Belle-Île, France by Kelly.
Matisse drawings curated by Ellsworth Kelly at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Presented the Hadrian Award by the World Monuments Fund in New York.
2015
Ellsworth Kelly: Outside In at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York devotes all four galleries to the exhibition of recent paintings and sculpture.
Austin, a building designed by Kelly with colored-glass windows, an 18-foot redwood totem, and a series of fourteen black-and-white marble wall panels, is commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin. Kelly presents the plans as a gift to the Blanton Museum of Art.
Awarded on its 50th anniversary the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal by the Smithsonian Institution.
Ellsworth Kelly Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Reliefs and Sculpture, 1940-1953, Volume 1 by Yve-Alain Bois is published by Cahiers d’Art, Paris and awarded Pierre Daix Prize by François Pinault.
Phaidon publishes Ellsworth Kelly, the first monograph since 1971 featuring essays by Tricia Y. Paik, Gary Garrels, Gavin Delahunty, Richard Shiff, and Robert Storr.
Ellsworth Kelly dies at home in Spencertown, New York on December 27.
2016
Ellsworth Kelly Photographs, the first solo exhibition dedicated to photographs, is presented at Matthew Marks Gallery.
Ellsworth Kelly Anthology curated by Rudi Fuchs is presented at Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar as the museum’s inaugural exhibition.
Presented the J. Paul Getty Museum Medal posthumously by James Cuno, President of the J. Paul Getty Trust.
2017
Ellsworth Kelly Last Paintings and Ellsworth Kelly Plant Drawings at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.
2018
Austin is inaugurated into the Blanton Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Form into Spirit: Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin curated by Carter Foster is presented in conjunction with the inauguration at the Blanton Museum of Art.