Dark Blue Curve
1994 - 1995
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph in blue on Arches 88 wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 65.41 × 76.36 cm (25 3/4 × 30 1/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gemini G.E.L. and the Artist, in honor of Andrew Robison
Accession Number
2016.146.41
Art Historical Context
**Dark Blue Curve** (1994–1995) by Ellsworth Kelly exemplifies the artist's lifelong dedication to pure form and color. This striking lithograph features a bold, sweeping curve in deep blue against the creamy expanse of Arches 88 wove paper, measuring 65.41 × 76.36 cm. Kelly, a pioneer of minimalist and hard-edge abstraction, strips art to its essentials—shape, hue, and scale—evoking a sense of quiet monumentality. Created late in his career, it reflects his enduring fascination with geometry's emotional power, bridging organic curves with precise abstraction. Produced in collaboration with G...
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...