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Ellsworth Kelly

Portrait Drawings
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Ellsworth Kelly presents a rare collection of one hundred figurative drawings by the renowned pioneer of abstraction. Spanning from the 1940s to the early 2000s, these works reveal a lesser-known side of Kelly through informal portraits of friends and self-portraits. The drawings illustrate his dedication to honing his craft, testing bold lines, and exploring the space between naturalism and abstraction. The volume also touches on his social milieu, including creative circles and the queer community, making it an intimate companion piece to his wider body of work.
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Format: Hardback
$9599
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This volume will appeal to admirers of modern art, those interested in the evolution of abstract art, and readers eager to explore the hidden facets of an iconic artist’s legacy. It is also valuable to scholars and enthusiasts keen on the intersection of art and social history.

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An eye-opening presentation of largely unknown figurative drawings by a renowned pioneer of abstraction

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

An eye-opening presentation of largely unknown figurative drawings by a renowned pioneer of abstraction

Featuring one hundred figurative works on paper by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), this volume shows a new side of an artist best known for abstraction. These informal depictions of friends and expressive self-portraits—all rarely or never previously displayed or published—span the entirety of Kelly’s career, from the mid-1940s to the early 2000s.

Throughout his life, Kelly made portraits as a means of keeping his hand adept at drawing, which provided a place to test his ideas, refine his bold use of lines, and interrogate the space between naturalism and abstraction. These works also capture his social milieu, which intersected with other creative circles and the queer community. He painstakingly recorded how his own appearance changed over time, and once described some of these sketches by saying, “I use myself in order to draw.”

The accompanying critical essays unpack the ways in which such intimate efforts were fundamental to Kelly’s practice and situate this important aspect of his work within the artist’s wider oeuvre.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition Schedule:

Art Institute of Chicago
(July 1–October 23, 2023)

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780300269741

Publisher: Art Institute of Chicago

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 27 June 2023

Country: United States

Imprint: Art Institute of Chicago

Illustration: 130 color illustrations

Contributors:

  • Contributions by Jordan Carter
  • Contributions by Richard Meyer
  • Contributions by Richard Meyer
  • Edited by Kevin Salatino
  • Edited by Emily Vokt Ziemba
  • Contributions by Jordan Carter
  • Contributions by Susan Tallman
  • Contributions by Jack Shear

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 203.0mm

Height: 254.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 190

Collections

Arts & Culture Non-Fiction

About the Author

Kevin Salatino is chair and Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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