Kelly, unlike many painters of his generation, arrived at his abstractions by observing his surroundings. The artist based his shapes, more often than not, on the reality or memory of an architectural motif, recording the interplay of shadows in a stairwell or the curved shape of the Pont Neuf’s reflection on the Seine in Paris—where Kelly spent six years after World War II on the G.I. Bill. Blue Green Red, the first of a series of eight large-scale pictures in these colors, recalls both Kelly’s 1958 painting Mask, inspired by the shadows cast across an open book, and his abstracted landscapes of the 1950s.
the artist, New York (1963; sold through the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist (as "Blue Red Green," 1962–63).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970," October 18, 1969–February 8, 1970, no. 175 (as "Blue Red Green," 1962–63).
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Great American Paintings from the Boston and Metropolitan Museums," November 30, 1970–January 10, 1971, no. 99 (as "Blue Red Green").
Saint Louis, Mo. City Art Museum. "Great American Paintings from the Boston and Metropolitan Museums," January 28–March 7, 1971, no. 99.
Seattle Art Museum. "Great American Paintings from the Boston and Metropolitan Museums," March 25–May 9, 1971, no. 99.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, unnum. checklist.
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. "Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue, Paintings and Studies, 1958–1965," January 19–April 14, 2003, no. 6.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue, Paintings and Studies, 1958–1965," April 27–July 27, 2003, no. 6.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue, Paintings and Studies, 1958–1965," August 10–November 3, 2003, no. 6.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870–2020," August 29, 2020–January 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (fig. 235).
Thomas Hess. "The Phony Crisis in American Art." Art News 62 (Summer 1963), p. 28, ill.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 151–52, ill.
"Most at the Met." New York Times (January 1, 1967), p. 132, ill., calls it "Blue Red Green" and dates it 1962–63; identifies it as "the Met's most modern object".
Hilton Kramer. "30 Years of the New York School." New York Times Magazine (October 12, 1969), p. 31, ill., calls it "Blue, Red, Green" and dates it 1962–63.
Thomas N. Maytham. Great American Paintings from the Boston and Metropolitan Museums. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Seattle, 1970, pp. 19, 151, no. 99, ill. p. 152, dates it 1962–63.
John Coplans. Ellsworth Kelly. New York, [197?], colorpl. 149, dates it 1962–63.
Kathleen Howard, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1983, p. 423, no. 27, ill. (color).
Piri Halasz. "Manhattan Museums: The 1940s vs. the 1980s; Part Two: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts Magazine 59 (March 1985), p. 96, calls it "Blue, Red, Green" and dates it 1962–63.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1986–1987. New York, 1987, p. 85, calls it "Blue Red Green" and dates it 1962–63.
Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 9, The United States of America. New York, 1987, p. 150, colorpl. 113.
Barbara Burn, ed. Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 308, ill. (color), dates it 1962–63.
Barbara Burn, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd rev. ed. (1st ed., 1983). New York, 1994, p. 449, no. 31, ill. (color).
Stella Paul. Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Resource for Educators. New York, 1999, pp. 111–13, ill. and ill. p. 110 (color).
Toby Kamps inEllsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue, Paintings and Studies, 1958–1965. Exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. San Diego, 2003, p. 17, no. 6, ill. p. 53 (color).
Ben Sisario. "Arts Briefing: A Painter With Just Three Colors." New York Times (August 13, 2003), p. E2.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2012, p. 427, ill. (color).
Karen Rosenberg. "Loving Flowers and Vines to Abstraction." New York Times (June 8, 2012), p. C34.
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 531, ill. (color), colorpl. 472.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2019, p. 427, ill. (color) and ill. frontispiece (color, detail).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, ill. p. 117 (color).
Kelly Baum inMaking The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 219, 256, fig. 235 (color).
Ellsworth Kelly (American, Newburgh, New York 1923–2015 Spencertown, New York)
1957
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