Red Floor Panel 1992
Acrylic on canvas on wood
1 × 316½ × 478¾ inches; 3 × 804 × 1216 cm
Kelly created his first floor painting in 1990 in response to curator Kasper König’s invitation to exhibit at Portikus in Frankfurt, Germany. Yellow Curve (1990) filled the floor of the exhibition space, spanning two adjacent walls. Over the next twenty years, Kelly made four more floor paintings including two in black, one in blue, and this one in red.
Yellow Curve 1990
Acrylic on canvas on wood
Glenstone, Potomac, MD
Kelly first began exploring the idea of extending his works onto the floor in the mid-1960s with the paintings Red Blue Green Yellow (1965) and Blue Red (1966). Each work is made up of two panels of equal size, one installed on the wall and the other extending out across the floor.
Blue Red 1966
Acrylic on canvas, two panels
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab
Red Floor Panel (1992), measuring over twenty-five by forty feet, was first exhibited at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum in Münster. This is the first time the work is being shown in thirty years.
Red Floor Panel at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, 1992
Ellsworth Kelly with Red Panel at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, 1992
Poster for Kelly's 1992 exhibition at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum in Münster.