Spectrum IV 1967

Ellsworth Kelly painted ‘Spectrum IV’ in luscious colours that are so precise, they feel inevitable. Imagine Kelly, in his studio, meticulously layering thin coats of paint. Each stripe is a world of its own, and the subtle shifts in tone create a vibrating energy. Did he obsess over the exact shade of each colour? Did he tweak the edges until they sang? I bet he did. I wonder if the way that each colour nudges against its neighbour evokes the same kind of tension he might have felt when making it. As a painter I know that each decision is a question that leads to another question. What happens if I put this here? Can I live with that? Colour is tricky because it changes all the time depending on what it’s next to. Like having dinner with the family, the dynamic of all the colours together shifts and changes. Kelly knew that and gave us a recipe for a really good dinner. That's the beauty of painting – it’s not about answers, but about the questions we keep asking each other.