Ellsworth Kelly: States of the River | An Exhibition | Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center

On View: June 29 – November 26, 2023

With the exhibition, States of The River, Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center is pleased to join the Ellsworth Kelly Studio and other U.S. museums and venues in celebrating the centennial of the birth of Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), widely regarded as one of the most important painters, sculptors, and printmakers of his time. On Thursday, June 29, the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, Nyack, NY,  will unveil the exhibition, Ellsworth Kelly: States of the River, featuring nine lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly  (1923–2015) created between 2004 and 2005 and printed at Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles.

The exhibition takes its name from a series of large-scale one color lithographs by Kelly dedicated to the motif of rivers around the world. Printed in black, with white highlights coming forth from the Rives BFK paper surface, eight large scale prints are each titled after a major waterway: the Rhine; Nile; Thames; Amazon; Seine; Yangtze; Mississippi; and Hudson. At the Edward Hopper House Museum, this group is joined by The River, a lithograph measuring just over nine feet in length. The large format gives the images a sweeping presence as well as an equivalency to Kelly’s hallmark clean lines and color field paintings and sculptures.

The River lithographs were influenced by work Kelly created while living in Paris between 1948 and 1954. This formative period in the artistic development of the Newburgh, NY native was marked by a fascination for color and form found in nature and the play of light and shadow on the wavering surface of water. More than 50 years later the ever inquisitive Kelly, then in his eighties, rekindled interest in his earlier Parisian investigations. Beginning with 4 x 6 inch postcards, the idea spawned into eleven related but distinct works, ranging from these one color lithographs to a wall sculpture.

You can learn more about Ellsworth Kelly and this exhibition by visiting: https://www.edwardhopperhouse.org/ellsworthkelly.html

IMAGE: Ellsworth Kelly, The Hudson, 2005, Lithograph on Rives BFK paper 40 x 32 inches (101.6 x 81.3 cm), Courtesy of Jack Shear and the Ellsworth Kelly Studio, Artwork © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Gemini G.E.L. LLC

This exhibition, held in honor of the Ellsworth Kelly Centennial with loans courtesy of Jack Shear, is made possible, in part, with generous support from Victoria Hertz & Rod Greenwood and funds provided by the New York State Council on the Arts Support for Operations grant.