Red Floor Panel, Ellsworth Kelly | Matthew Marks Gallery

Sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly, , dated 1992

Red Floor Panel 1992
Acrylic on canvas on wood
1 × 316½ × 478¾ inches; 3 × 804 × 1216 cm

Exhibited

Münster, Germany, Westfälischer Landesmuseum, Ellsworth Kelly, June 14 – August 23, 1992

Literature

Hindry, Ann, ed. “Spécial Ellsworth Kelly.” Artstudio 24, Spring 1992, pp. 7, 142, 147, ill. in color.

Ellsworth Kelly: The Years in Paris 1948–1954. Münster, Germany: Westfalischer Landesmuseum, 1992 (announcement card).

Butterhof, Hanns. “Verwischte Spuren der Subjektivitat: Ausstellung der Werke Ellsworth Kellys aus seinen Jahren in Frankreich 1948–1954 im Landesmuseum Munster.” Recklinghäuser Zeitung (Recklinghausen, Germany), June 23, 1992, ill.

Loy, Johannes. “Konfrontation mit Flachen und Farben: Landesmuseum prasentiert Ellsworth Kelly.” Westfälische Nachrichten (Münster, Germany), June 13, 1992, ill.

Restorff, Jörg. “Fenster mit Ausblick zur Leinwand.” Münstersche Zeitung (Münster, Germany), June 13, 1992, ill.

Waldman, Diane, ed. Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1996, pp. 318–19. ill.

Di Monte, Maria Guiseppina. Ellsworth Kelly: La forma é il contenuto. Rome: de Luca Editori d'Arte, 2010, pp. 128, 173, ill. in color.

Paik, Tricia Y. Ellsworth Kelly. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2015, fig. 135, pp. 203, 325, 345, ill. in color.

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.

<p><em>Yellow Curve</em> 1990<br />Acrylic on canvas on wood<br />Glenstone, Potomac, MD</p> — *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.

<p><em>Blue Red</em> 1966<br />Acrylic on canvas, two panels<br />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<br /></p> — *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.

<p><em>Red Floor Panel</em> at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, 1992</p> — *Red Floor Panel* at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, 1992

<p>Ellsworth Kelly with <em>Red Panel</em> at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, 1992</p> — Ellsworth Kelly with *Red Panel* at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, 1992

<p>Poster for Kelly's 1992 exhibition at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum in Münster.</p> — Poster for Kelly's 1992 exhibition at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum in Münster.