Broadway 1958

Ellsworth Kelly’s 'Broadway' is a canvas dominated by the color red, grounded by a white base. Red, a color that pulses with primal energy, has symbolized many things across cultures and eons. Consider its appearance in ancient frescoes, where it represented lifeblood and vitality, or in Renaissance paintings, where it adorned the robes of cardinals, signifying power and passion. This very same red reappears, though abstracted, stripped down, here, as a signifier. The white at the base anchors the color, providing a foundation that allows the intensity of the red to be experienced more viscerally. Red can evoke feelings of love and anger, courage and danger, and it taps into our collective unconscious, stirring deep-seated emotions and memories. Like a phoenix, this red rises, constantly reborn across time and space, each time carrying the weight of its past lives. It is a symbol in perpetual motion, revealing the cyclical nature of art and the enduring power of color to affect us profoundly.