Méditerannée 1952

Ellsworth Kelly made this painting, Méditerranée, with pigment on canvas. Looking at this grid of nine uniform squares, I think about the painting's coming-into-being: the carefulness, the patience, the layering. I imagine Kelly’s total focus, stepping back, and then leaning in. It’s like a silent conversation he is having with himself. You can feel that intention in the details – the way the blocks of color butt up against each other and make different temperatures. How the paint is smoothed so perfectly, so that the color is the only thing you see. I bet Kelly was thinking about Josef Albers when he made this, you know that great color theorist, who showed everyone how colors change depending on their surroundings? Artists are always in conversation with each other, inspiring each other across time. These paintings show us different ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing color and form.