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Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments

Changing the way we see

By JON GARELICK | November 20, 2007

3.0 Stars

Ellsworth Kelly

Director Edgar Howard traces the influential Abstractionist’s work from his days as a camouflage artist in World War II to his study at Boston’s Museum School, his post-war years in Paris, and the flood of captivating paintings, prints, and sculpture that’s continued unabated ever since. The roster of expert witnesses includes Yale School of Art dean Robert Storr and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (who commissioned Kelly to create the 21 colored panels installed at the Moakley US Court House on Boston Harbor). But the best commentary comes from the still-vigorous octogenarian artist. We see a lot of work and hear how he made it; we see first-hand the creation of a giant installation for the new US Embassy in Beijing. The shapes and lines of Kelly’s big, bright, flat-color abstractions are, it turns out, taken from life — the “relief” of a Paris chimney, the shadow of a banister on a staircase. The film’s epigraph reads: “I’m not inventing; my ideas come from constantly investigating how things look.” How Kelly looks at things can change the way an art lover sees. 65 minutes | Mfa: November 29; December 13, 16, 19, 20, 22, 29

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