awards for arts achievement
| Recipient: | Ellsworth Kelly
Lifetime Achievement Award |
| Year: | 2007 |
Ellsworth Kelly is widely regarded as one of the most important abstract painters, sculptors, and printmakers working today. Spanning six decades, his career is marked by the independent route his art has taken, away from any particular formal school or art movement, and by his innovative contribution to 20th century painting and sculpture.
Mr. Kelly was born in Newburgh, NY, in 1923. Following two years of studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1943 to 1945 in France, and then resumed his education at the Boston Museum School. He returned to Paris 1948 under the G.I. Bill and enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He lived and studied in Paris for six years.
His first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Arnaud in Paris in 1951. His first major retrospective exhibition was Ellsworth Kelly at The Museum of Modern Art in 1973, followed by Ellsworth Kelly Recent Paintings and Schulpture at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1982, and Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1996.
Mr. Kelly's recent exhibitions include Ellsworth Kelly: Works 1956–2002 at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland; Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue Paintings and Studies 1958–1965 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2002–2003; Ellsworth Kelly in Dallas at the Dallas Museum of Art, 2004; Ellsworth Kelly, an exhibition of recent works at the Serpentine Gallery, London; and Ellswroth Kelly Paris-New York 1949–1959 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2006–2007, among others.
In 2007, Checkerboard Film Foundation premiered the documentary Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments, a biographical sketch of the artist. Mr. Kelly recently participated in the 52nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are currently featuring exhibitions highlighting the breadth of his work.
