Provenance
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Collection of Carter Burden, New York
Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, Contemporary Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, May 15 and 16, 1980, lot 529
Private Collection, Chicago
Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, Contemporary Art Evening Sale, November 7, 2011, lot 26
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, An Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly, October 7 – November 7, 1968, (cover illustration)
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1969 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, December 16, 1969 – February 1, 1970
Literature
J. Coplans, Ellsworth Kelly, 1971, pl. 205 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
“Each work of art is a fragment of a larger context… . I’ve always been interested in things that I see that don’t make sense out of context, that lead you into something else.”
ELLSWORTH KELLY, 1991

Breaking with his contemporaries, Ellsworth Kelly led a trailblazing career, forging an iconic status among the great American Twentieth Century painters; his exultation
of both shape and color revolutionized the meaning of fgurative expression. Celebrating the visual richness of the world around us while projecting uniquely as artforms, Kelly’s brave canvases aim for our most instinctual familiarities. The present lot, Green Black, 1968, came to life during the beginning of Kelly’s experimentation into two-panel pieces, as he sought to widen both his and the viewer’s chromatic vocabulary by establishing relationships between shape and color. Though most of Kelly’s uses of multiple colors resulted in respective panels for each hue, the present lot defes this trend—its chromatic split is a result of painterly precision rather than an assemblage of canvases. In allowing them to share a panel, Kelly eliminates the distance between the two colors. Besides his virtuosic display of technical brilliance, here Kelly tests us in the art of mental relaxation, as he dares the viewer to release our tendency to see an optical illusion.

Kelly’s technique employs vivid color felds and allows for dynamic interaction—critically falling into the Hard-edge school of painting. Kelly has historically found inspiration in environmental sources. While Green Black, 1968 can trace its structural and chromatic origin to the natural world, it is wholly nonrepresentational. It is in this elimination of connotations that Kelly yields his profound power: “to objectify color and form and to distill its essence from the world of reality, drawing on human emotion, imagination, and spirit” (D. Waldman. Ellsworth Kelly, New York, 1996, p. 38). Kelly’s painting prompts an equally emotive response from the viewer. It is a technique similar to the work of Mark Rothko; both artists employ the visceral capacity of pure color as a trigger for human reaction.

The precise division between the pitch black and bright green of Green Black, 1968, displays stark contrast, yet also coexistence. The border shared between both colors lends Kelly’s geometric work a quality of seamless union. Upon closer inspection, the surface allows no hint at its creation; Kelly’s subtle brushstrokes display no overlap of color or traces of his hand, demonstrating his technical prowess. Within the structure of Kelly’s canvas, two painted shapes take on the visual appearance of a two-dimensional cube. The disjointed proportions lead the viewer to question the dimensions of this cube; were it rendered three-dimensionally, would the fgure’s sides be warped to accommodate the curious lengths of its edges? Since Green Black, 1968 exists only in two-dimensional space, this contemplation is lef unresolved.

The concept of optical illusion contradicts Kelly’s objectives. He aims to produce a pre-Euclidean version of the world, to subtract all modern notions of geometry and intellectual process that inhibit emotional response. To achieve this, he counter intuitively presents shapes familiar to us all. Kelly himself has testifed that his art is not meant to be an end in itself, but to intensify our awareness of the world around the art. The dueling forces of color and structure in Green Black, 1968, in fact suggest mental repose: “It’s not so much about nature, it’s about investigating. I always said you should put your mind to rest and just look. And don’t try to put meaning into
it.” (Ellsworth Kelly quoted in Ellsworth Kelly: Thumbing Through the Folder—A Dialogue on Art and Architecture with Hans Ulrich Obrist, New York, 2010, p. 6).
Artist Biography
Ellsworth Kelly
American • 1923 - 2015
Acting as a vital contributor to the Abstract movement, Ellsworth Kelly focused on color and composition. Becoming inspired by ornithology and the bold coloring of birds, Kelly used a two or three pigment color palette — painted flatly and geometrically — on his canvases. While living in Paris, the artist used Monet's late works as a base for experimenting with expressionism and serial work
View More Works

19

Ellsworth Kelly

Green black

1968
oil on canvas
95 x 68 in. (241.3 x 172.7 cm.)
Initialed and dated “EK 68” on the reverse; further signed and dated “Kelly 1968” on the stretcher.

Estimate
$2,500,000 - 3,500,000

Sold for $2,965,000

Contact Specialist
Zach Miner
Head of Sale
zminer@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1256

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York 16 May 2013 7pm

1
Wade Guyton
U Sculpture (v. 5)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $365,000
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2
Nate Lowman
Escalade
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $545,000
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3
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $665,000
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4
Jeff Koons
Jim Beam - Observation Car
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,625,000
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5
Christopher Wool
And If
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $4,085,000
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6
Cady Noland
Industry Park
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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7
Andreas Gursky
Rhein
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,925,000
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8
Thomas Schütte
Großer Geist Nr. 9
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
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9
Richard Prince
Untitled (Man's hand with watch)
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $161,000
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10
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $509,000
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11
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,685,000
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12
Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $725,000
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13
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Soap)
Estimate $5,000,000 - 7,000,000
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14
Glenn Ligon
Stranger Drawing #7
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $509,000
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15
Andy Warhol
Blue/Green Marilyn from Reversal Series
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,325,000
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16
Lucio Fontana
Concetto spaziale, Attese
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,565,000
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17
Andy Warhol
Flowers
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,461,000
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18
Roy Lichtenstein
Still Life
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
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19
Ellsworth Kelly
Green black
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,965,000
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20
Josef Albers
Study for Homage to the Square: Signal
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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21
John Chamberlain
Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $905,000
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22
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $4,085,000
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23
Andy Warhol
Four Marilyns
Estimate On Request
Sold for $38,245,000
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24
This lot is no longer available.
25
Andy Warhol
Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn)
Estimate $1,400,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $2,045,000
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26
Wayne Thiebaud
Cat and Traffic
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $893,000
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27
Morris Louis
Roseate
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Sold for $365,000
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28
Alexander Calder
The White Face
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
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29
Philip Guston
Brushes
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
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30
James Rosenquist
The Meteor Hits the Swimmer's Pillow
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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31
Jeff Koons
Giraffe (Light Green)
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32
Damien Hirst
Sulbenicilina Disódica
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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33
Kelley Walker
I see an attacking bear-shaped thing
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $341,000
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34
Franz West
Untitled (Two heads)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $461,000
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35
Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy)
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $425,000
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36
Mark Grotjahn
Butterfly
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37
Dana Schutz
Dead Zebra
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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38
Thomas Houseago
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $209,000
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York 16 May 2013 7pm

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Ellsworth Kelly

19

Ellsworth Kelly

Green black

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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