Ellsworth Kelly explored the fundamentals of color, line, and form, yet the basis of his abstraction always lay in his observations of natural and built environments. Train Landscape, which Kelly made during his formative years in Paris (from 1948 to 1954), draws its vivid colors from nature. The title refers to fields of lettuce, spinach, and mustard that the young artist viewed from a train while speeding through the French countryside—this perceptual blur here pushed to the extreme of a flat, pristine monochrome. The multipanel composition emphasizes the status of the painting as an object on the wall, with a shape, density, and heft of its own.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Michel Seuphor, Art Abstrait Constructif International, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Denise René, 1962), n.p. (ill.).
John Coplans, “The Earlier Work of Ellsworth Kelly” Artforum 7, no. 10 (Summer 1969), 50 (color ill.), 55.
John Coplans, Ellsworth Kelly (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1971), 54, n.p., pl. 86, as Three Panels: Train Landscape (color ill.).
Hess, 1973, pg. 98
Jeff Perrone, “Ellsworth Kelly, Leo Castelli Graphics” Artforum 15, no. 8 (April 1977): 62.
Richard H. Axsom, The Prints of Ellsworth Kelly: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1949-1985 (New York: The American Federation of the Arts, 1987), 125, comment, cat. 156.
Christine Temin, “Interview: Ellsworth Kelly stresses the art, not the artist” The Boston Globe (Dec. 13, 1987), n. 5
Yve-Alain Bois, Jack Cowart, and Alfred Pacquement, Ellsworth Kelly: The Years in France, 1948-1954 (Washington, D.C: National Gallery of Art, 1992), 175, cat. 90.
Diane Waldman, Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, exh. cat. (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1996), 28, n.p., cat. 21 (color ill.).
Yve-Alain Bois, Ellsworth Kelly: The Early Drawings, 1948-1955, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1999), 31.
Yve-Alain Bois, “Ellsworth Kelly’s Dream of Impersonality” The Institute Letter (New Jersey: Institute for Advanced Study (Fall 2013): n.p. (color ill.).
Yve-Alain Bois and Sarah Lees, Monet/Kelly, exh. cat. (Williamstown, MA: Clark Art Institute, 2014), 52 (color ill.), 53, 54.
Emily Wei Rales, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Alex Da Corte, Suzanne Hudson, and Corey Keller, Ellsworth Kelly, exh. cat. (Potomac: Glenstone Museum, 2024), forthcoming.
New York, Betty Parsons Gallery, Ellsworth Kelly, paintings 1951-1956, May 21-June 8, 1956, no cat.
Paris, Galerie Denise René, Art Abstrait Constructif International - Structures, Dec. 15, 1961-Feb. 10, 1962, no cat. no; Leverkusen, Germany, Städtisches Museum Leverkusen (Schloss Morsbroich), June 22-Aug. 19, 1962.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Ellsworth Kelly, Sept. 12–Nov. 4, 1973, not in cat; Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, Jan. 14-Mar. 3, 1974; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Mar. 30-May 19, 1974; Detroit Institute of Arts, June 17-Aug. 4, 1974.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Go: The Modern Series, Part II, Feb. 23, 2017–June 4, 2017, no cat.
Potomac, MD, Glenstone, Ellsworth Kelly at 100, May 4, 2023–Mar. 17, 2024, not in cat; Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton, May 6, 2024–Sept. 9, 2024; Qatar, M7, Oct. 24, 2024-Feb. 25, 2025 (Paris and Qatar only).
Estate of the artist; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 10, 2025.
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