Kelly, Ellsworth (1972). Spectrum [collage on paper]. © Ellsworth Kelly private collection.

I can see where this might be a simple painting to some, but to me this work is amazing. It’s an experiment in color in the same vein as Butler’s In the Forest and the kind of mastery of color purity that I will strive for until I achieve it. | 

A full cycle of color purity is the subject, presented in evenly-spaced vertical strokes. Yellow is placed on the terminals and purity-adjusted with either subtractive primary until gray is achieved in the center, cool from the left-in and warm from the right-in. Each stroke is adjusted in rigidly proportional steps in purity, a nearly impossible accomplishment.

The yellow strokes on either end are the same chroma and temperature. Moving from left in, blue is added in equal proportion to the amount of yellow removed until step five, where pure blue is achieved. The same happens on the right side-in, except red replaces blue. At that point, yellow is removed as an adjustment, replaced by equal additions and removals of red and blue depending on the stroke until neutral gray is achieved at the exact center stroke. Tonal differences are secondary and due to the respective color’s native value. All strokes have the same width and height.

Spatial order is the result of the impressions provided by the color and value of those strokes. The result is an almost subconscious waveform with nadir to the left and crest to the right. Spatially and in terms of visual weight, I would regard this as a work of pure symmetry, but the differences in value and saturation result in more slightly approximate symmetry.

This work is a study in precise equivalencies and elemental range possibilities. It employs perfect balance and the full range of subtractive primaries. Value range is constricted and pivots on the exact center of the scale. I believe eye movement is not so much centered in one area in favor of another. Rather, it travels over the canvas in search of the order Ellsworth has created that can only be discovered in careful study of his elemental and strategic choices.

The picture frame is used only to present the subject matter and nothing more. Special attention should be brought to Ellsworth’s choices regarding negative space. The deliberate and intuitive width of space between positive elements is exactly what is called for to relate each element to its neighbor. This work is a simply ingenious way to render a full complementary color cycle and masterful in its pleasing, harmonious character.