One Thursday Art Night (Part 2)

Ellsworth Kelly

Diagonal

Matthew Mark Gallery.
February 6th-April 11, 2009

When I walked into the Matthew Mark Gallery i had no idea what to expect...I just got out of an amazing show at Pace Prints Chelsea (Al Held) and was genially surprised how my evening was turning out to be aligned within the art subject without any effort on my part...It must be fate or luck; or the combination of both...It was another great hard-edged abstract artist.

Mr. Kelly is 85 years aged still works every day in his studio in Spencertown, N.Y., where he is in the midst of executing a new series of abstract paintings.

Many of his paintings consist of a single (usually bright) color, with some canvases being of irregular shape, sometimes called “shaped canvases”.

In the literature of art history and criticism, the term shaped canvas is particularly associated with certain works created mostly in New York after about 1960, during a period when a great variety and quantity of such works were produced.

But what fascinated me the most about that show: how people at the gallery were interacting with the paintings...Whether it was intentional or accidental...the way visitors were dressed, the way they were looking at the paintings, and simply the way they WERE!!!
It looked like that sweet cooperation between the guests and the paintings on the gallery walls made even more sense-and in such an unexpected way.
Mr. Ellsworth Kelly’s background in the military had an impact on his work. While serving time in the army during Second World War, Kelly was exposed to and influenced by the camouflage, with which his specific battalion worked.

Would that camouflage experience of his BE the reason visitors either blend in with his paintings or stand out? Is that a coincidence or maybe their behavior was programmed into the paintings by the Master Himself??? Anyway it’s just a thought...

But be you own judge: with the curiousness of a little friend (my camera) :some shots were taken at the show, which only prove my point - not only art IS among us... We are simply the part of ART ourselves in this World...

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