Tablet #65 1969

Ellsworth Kelly, he made this “Tablet #65.” out of collaged newspaper. I can picture him, snipping and placing fragments together. I can imagine him thinking of Kurt Schwitters, another collage artist, looking for abstraction in ordinary life. I'm curious how the different textures come into play: The rough-edged tears contrast with the smooth white paper. There’s also something about the printed photographs and the geometric shapes cut from text, arranged into different compositions. The way he’s put this together, it's almost like he’s making his own history. The bridge, the sailboats, the architecture, all fragments of a larger story, like memory. I wonder what it means to assemble these pieces together? Kelly's practice reminds us that all artists stand on the shoulders of those who came before, building upon ideas and innovating in their own way.