Ellsworth Kelly is one of the most important figures in the history of modern art. His inventive practices as an abstract painter and sculptor were accompanied by a lifelong passion for objective drawing. Through his persistent interest in the perception of the natural world, the artist created an impressive and truly unique body of work.

Kelly was born in 1923 in Newburgh, New York and raised in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. From 1948-1954, the artist lived in Paris, before he returned to his birthplace New York. In 1970, he moved into his studio in Chatham, New York and purchased a home in nearby Spencertown, where he lived with his long-time partner, the photographer Jack Shear, until the end of his life. Ellsworth Kelly died in 2015.

Major solo exhibitions have been dedicated to the artist by renowned institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art (1973), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1979), The Whitney Museum of American Art (1982), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1996). 

In 2002, his plant drawings were shown alongside those of Henri Matisse, whom Kelly had long admired, at the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. A major retrospective of his plant drawings took place in 2011 at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich and traveled in the same year to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Kelly’s works are owned by the major artistic institutions of Western Europe and America, including the Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Tate Modern, London; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and many others. Additionally, he created numerous important artworks for public spaces. During his lifetime, Kelly was honored with several awards, including the Praemium Imperiale award for painting, which he received in 2000 from the Japan Art Association, the title of Commandeur des Arts des Lettres, which he received in 2009 by the French government and, in 2013, the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama.

Ellsworth Kelly

Peder Lund is honored to announce that the gallery will take part in the centennial celebration of the inimitable American artist Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015). With the upcoming exhibition “Ellsworth Kelly: Postcards”, Peder Lund will present an exclusive selection of the artist’s beloved and important production of postcard collages.

On what would have been the artist’s 100th birthday, a year-long celebration will showcase the artist’s indelible legacy. This collaborative event includes exhibitions at several museums and galleries across the U.S. and Europe. Peder Lund is honored to be hosting a unique presentation in concert with the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and its president Jack Shear, as the artist estate’s representative gallery in Scandinavia.

Ellsworth Kelly is considered to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His abstract paintings, sculptures, and prints are masterworks in the exploration of line, form, and color. Presented at Peder Lund, for the first time in Scandinavia, are twenty- two of Kelly's delightful postcard collages — private studies that brim with anarchic humor, surrealistic juxtapositions, and formal virtuosity. Some of these miniature masterpieces served as exploratory musings by the artist while others were used as preparation for larger works in other media. From 1949 to 2005, Kelly made just over 400 postcard works. These show a playful, unbounded space of creative freedom for the artist and provide an important insight into the way Kelly saw, experienced, and translated the world in his art. 

As part of the Ellsworth Kelly Centennial Celebration program, major solo exhibitions are being dedicated to the artist by renowned institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Glenstone Museum, Potomac; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Kelly’s works are owned by many of the major artistic institutions of Western Europe and America, including the Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Tate Modern, London; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and many others. Additionally, he created numerous important artworks for public spaces. During his lifetime, Kelly was honored with several awards, including the Praemium Imperiale award for painting, which he received in 2000 from the Japan Art Association, the title of Commandeur des Arts des Lettres, which he received in 2009 by the French government and, in 2013, the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama.

Ellsworth Kelly, Brooklyn Bridge II, 1985. Private collection, Oslo © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, courtesy the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Peder Lund.

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