Ellsworth Kelly Untitled, Blue, Yellow, Red Signed Screenprint Edition of 35

Artist: Ellsworth Kelly
Title: Untitled, Blue, Yellow, Red
Medium: Screen Print in Colors
Year: c. 2000s
Image Size: 40.5" x 33"
Edition: 4/35
Inscription: Signed and numbered in pencil on bottom front right
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity

Ellsworth Kelly's "Untitled, Blue, Yellow, Red" exemplifies the artist's sustained commitment to color, form, and spatial clarity during the later period of his career. Created as a screen print in colors in the early 2000s, this work reflects Kelly's decades-long exploration of distilled visual language, where chromatic fields and geometric structure function as both subject and form. The composition centers on three distinct planes of blue, yellow, and red, each rendered with the crisp precision characteristic of Kelly's printmaking practice. By isolating and juxtaposing these saturated hues, the artist reinforces his belief in color as an independent, experiential phenomenon rather than a descriptive element.

The screen print technique—one Kelly frequently employed—allows for smooth, uniform fields of color that echo the clarity and precision seen across his broader print oeuvre. The calibrated proportions of the color blocks encourage the viewer to consider the relationships between hue, shape, and negative space. In this way, the work aligns with Kelly's ongoing investigation into how minimal means can generate complex visual experiences.

Kelly's "Untitled, Blue, Yellow, Red" measures 40.5 x 33 inches within the image area, offering a substantial visual presence that mirrors the monumentality found in Kelly's mural-scale paintings and reliefs. Executed in an edition of 35, this example is numbered 4/35 and signed in pencil along the lower right margin, underscoring the artist's close engagement with the work's production. Accompanied by a Gallery Certificate of Authenticity, "Untitled, Blue, Yellow, Red" stands as a focused example of the artist's minimalist vocabulary, demonstrating his ability to achieve expressive resonance through pure chromatic and geometric form.

About Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) was an American artist known for his pivotal contributions to postwar abstraction, particularly in the development of Hard-Edge Painting, Color Field Painting, and Minimalism. His work is characterized by a disciplined focus on color, form, and spatial clarity, and he remains one of the most influential figures in shaping the visual language of late 20th-century abstract art. Kelly's practice encompassed painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, unified by an approach that emphasized direct visual experience over narrative or symbolism.

Born in Newburgh, New York, Kelly studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston before attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris on the GI Bill. His years in France (1948–1954) were formative: exposure to Romanesque architecture, Byzantine art, and the work of artists such as Jean Arp and Henri Matisse informed his interest in simplified shapes and the autonomy of color. Kelly began producing canvases based on observations of incidental forms—shadows, fragments of architecture, and natural contours—leading to his lifelong method of translating perceived shapes into abstract compositions.

Upon returning to the United States, Kelly became central to the rise of American geometric abstraction. His shaped canvases of the 1960s and 1970s challenged traditional rectangular formats and emphasized the objecthood of the painting itself. His large-scale sculptures, executed in aluminum, steel, and bronze, further explored the relationship between form and surrounding space. Across all media, Kelly pursued a vocabulary of crisp lines, saturated hues, and precisely defined shapes, creating works that sought to present visual phenomena without mediation or personal gesture.

Kelly's art has been the subject of major exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Tate. His work is represented in prominent museum and private collections worldwide. Throughout his career, Kelly maintained a consistent commitment to abstraction grounded in observation, emphasizing the clarity of form and the independent power of color. His legacy continues to influence contemporary painting, sculpture, and design, and he is widely regarded as one of the most significant American artists of the postwar era.