Colored Paper Image XI (Gray Curves with Brown)
1976
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
colored and pressed paper pulp
Dimensions
sheet (irregular): 117.48 x 83.5 cm (46 1/4 x 32 7/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Professional Art Group I
Accession Number
1980.72.17
Art Historical Context
Ellsworth Kelly's *Colored Paper Image XI (Gray Curves with Brown)* (1976) exemplifies the artist's innovative exploration of form, color, and materiality in the realm of abstract art. Created using colored and pressed paper pulp—a labor-intensive technique involving handmade pulp embedded with pigments—this irregular sheet measures 117.48 x 83.5 cm. Kelly, a leading figure in postwar American abstraction and associated with hard-edge painting and minimalism, produced this as part of his acclaimed *Colored Paper Image* series in the mid-1970s. These works marked a pivotal shift, transforming f...
About the Artist
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) was a pioneering American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose career reshaped abstract art through precise geometry, bold color, and innovative forms. Born in Newburgh, New York, as the second of three sons to an insurance executive father and schoolteacher mother, Kelly developed an early fascination with nature's patterns, sparked by his paternal grandmother's int...