Ellsworth Kelly Blue with Black #1 Color Lithograph Signed Edition of 50

Artist: Ellsworth Kelly
Title:  Blue with Black #1
Medium: Color Lithograph
Year: 1975
Size Sheet: 30.25” x 27.75”
Edition: 31/50
Inscription: Signed and numbered in pencil front lower margin
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity
Note: This piece is currently not framed; the pictures showing it framed are digital mock-ups.

"Blue with Black #1" exemplifies Ellsworth Kelly's precise and disciplined approach to abstraction in the mid-1970s. Executed as a color lithograph, the work demonstrates Kelly's hallmark interest in form, color, and spatial relationships, presenting a bold geometric composition defined by a dominant field of blue intersected by a stark black form. The interaction of color and shape reflects Kelly's exploration of perceptual clarity, surface, and the dynamics of visual balance, key elements that characterize his contribution to postwar modernist abstraction.

This impression, number 31 from an edition of 50, is signed and numbered in pencil along the lower margin, underscoring the artist's meticulous attention to editioning and craftsmanship. The lithograph preserves the sharp contours, flat color planes, and clean edges that define Kelly's aesthetic across media, from painting to printmaking. The work's scale and compositional simplicity invite close visual engagement, highlighting the subtleties of chromatic interaction and spatial tension.

Produced during a period in which Kelly was deeply invested in exploring the boundaries between color, shape, and perception, "Blue with Black #1" situates the artist within the broader trajectory of 20th-century American abstraction. The lithograph demonstrates his ability to translate the visual economy and formal rigor of his large-scale paintings into the medium of print, offering collectors and scholars insight into the consistency of his aesthetic vision across formats.

As part of Kelly's broader oeuvre, this work exemplifies his enduring interest in the relationship between abstraction and perceptual experience, reaffirming his status as a leading figure in modernist printmaking and a pivotal contributor to contemporary American art.

About Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly was a seminal American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work played a defining role in the development of postwar modernist abstraction. Born in Newburgh, New York, in 1923, Kelly studied at the Pratt Institute and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following his military service, he traveled to Paris in 1948, where he immersed himself in the European avant-garde, drawing inspiration from artists such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and the emerging currents of abstraction and color theory. These experiences informed the development of Kelly's signature visual language, characterized by flat, vibrant color fields, precise geometric shapes, and an emphasis on the interplay between form, color, and spatial perception.

Kelly's artistic approach is often associated with Minimalism and Color Field painting, though his work defies strict categorization. He explored abstraction in its purest form, reducing imagery to its essential elements and eliminating extraneous detail. His compositions frequently juxtapose sharply defined shapes with bold, unmodulated colors, creating a dynamic tension between surface and form. In addition to his large-scale paintings, Kelly produced monumental sculptures and print works that reflect the same attention to clarity, balance, and spatial harmony. His prints, including lithographs, screenprints, and woodcuts, translate the visual economy and precision of his paintings into graphic media, demonstrating his versatility and technical mastery.

Throughout his career, Kelly's work was widely exhibited in major museums and galleries worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou. He received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to contemporary art, including recognition from the National Academy of Design and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His paintings, sculptures, and prints are held in prominent public and private collections internationally, underscoring his lasting impact on the trajectory of 20th-century and contemporary art.

Kelly's legacy lies in his ability to distill visual experience to its essential components, emphasizing perceptual clarity, formal simplicity, and chromatic intensity. His work bridges abstraction and representation, drawing from the rhythms and shapes of the natural world while maintaining a rigorously modernist sensibility. By focusing on the elemental qualities of color, shape, and space, Kelly expanded the possibilities of visual perception and left an indelible mark on American and international art.