Artist: Ellsworth Kelly
Title: Black Variation 3
Medium: Lithograph with Intaglio on Rives Paper
Year: 1975
Image Size: 29" x 29"
Sheet Size: 39.75" x 39"
Edition: A.P. IX (aside from the edition of 25)
Publisher: Printed and Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles
Inscription: Signed and Numbered to Lower Right "AP IX Kelly" with publisher's blind stamps
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity
In "Black Variation 3", Ellsworth Kelly distills visual experience to its most essential elements—form, contrast, and balance. A commanding black square with subtly rounded corners is centered within a pristine white field, creating a bold juxtaposition that captures the artist's enduring exploration of spatial tension and purity of shape.
Completed in 1975, the work exemplifies Kelly's ability to create visual harmony through geometric precision and restrained elegance. The soft curves of the black form temper the stark contrast of black on white, producing a rhythm that is both assertive and contemplative. This balance between opposition and unity is a hallmark of Kelly's minimalist vision, where each shape is not a symbol but a presence—quiet, deliberate, and complete.
"Black Variation 3" is signed and numbered IX A.P. in pencil by Kelly, printed in addition to the standard print edition of 25. It bears the blind stamps of the celebrated print studio Gemini G.E.L., underscoring the high standards of craftsmanship behind the piece. A gallery certificate of authenticity is included.
Stripped of narrative or illusion, "Black Variation 3" stands as a powerful example of Ellsworth Kelly's formal clarity and his lifelong commitment to the expressive potential of abstraction. The piece is currently not framed; the pictures showing it with a frame are mockups to give you an idea of what it will look like when framed.
About Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) was an influential American artist best known for his pioneering contributions to abstract painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Kelly developed a distinctive visual language rooted in simplified forms, bold color fields, and a deep engagement with spatial relationships. His work played a foundational role in the development of hard-edge painting, Color Field painting, and Minimalism, although he consistently maintained an independent stance, separate from any singular movement.
Born in Newburgh, New York, Kelly showed early interest in art and nature, both of which would become central to his aesthetic. He studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II as part of a camouflage unit, where he honed his understanding of form, pattern, and visual deception. After the war, Kelly utilized the G.I. Bill to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and later moved to Paris in 1948 to study at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Kelly's time in postwar France proved pivotal. Immersed in the legacy of European modernism, he absorbed the work of artists such as Jean Arp, Henri Matisse, and Piet Mondrian. He also explored Romanesque and Byzantine art, architecture, and medieval sculpture—elements that informed his focus on shape and structure. Rather than following the dominant trends in American painting, Kelly began to cultivate an abstract vocabulary based on direct visual observation and a reductive approach to form. He frequently derived shapes from shadows, architectural elements, and fragments of the natural world, isolating and flattening them into crisp, monochromatic compositions.
Returning to New York in 1954, Kelly emerged as a counterpoint to the gestural intensity of Abstract Expressionism. His canvases—often painted in a single, unmodulated color—featured irregular geometric forms that emphasized spatial tension and visual balance. Works such as Blue Green Red (1963) and Red Blue Green (1963) exemplify his use of vivid color interactions and shaped canvases, rejecting traditional figure-ground relationships and prioritizing the viewer's sensory experience.
Throughout his career, Kelly pursued a rigorous exploration of abstraction across mediums. In addition to painting, he produced numerous sculptures—often large-scale, curved or angular forms in aluminum or steel that echoed the clarity of his two-dimensional work. His prints and drawings further reflected a disciplined, minimalist approach to line and shape.
Kelly's work garnered international acclaim and was widely exhibited in major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate, and the Centre Pompidou. He represented the United States in the 1959 São Paulo Biennial and was the subject of several retrospectives during his lifetime. In 2013, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas announced the construction of a building designed by Kelly himself, which would become the only freestanding structure he ever designed and house a permanent installation of his work. The Ellsworth Kelly Chapel, formally known as Austin, opened posthumously in 2018 and stands as a significant testament to his legacy.
Despite the simplicity of his forms, Kelly's work is grounded in a complex interplay of perception, space, and color. He remained deeply committed to the idea that art could be an immediate, visual experience, free from symbolism or narrative. His minimalist aesthetic, often misread as purely formal, was in fact rooted in attentive observation and a reverence for the world around him.
Ellsworth Kelly passed away in 2015 at the age of 92. His influence endures in the fields of contemporary painting, sculpture, and architecture, and his artworks continue to challenge and inspire through their clarity, precision, and quiet power.
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