Maximum Color, Minimal Form: The Panels of Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly’s eleven Panels will transform Davis Lab into a dynamic exploration of color, form, and perception. A pioneer of hard-edge abstraction, Kelly sought to distill visual experience into its purest elements, using bold geometric shapes and vibrant hues to activate space. His practice, rooted in observations of nature and architecture, embraced chance and intuition, resulting in compositions that engage the viewer’s movement and spatial awareness.

Kelly’s influence extended beyond his own work, shaping the trajectory of postwar American art. His close relationship with Robert Indiana, another key figure in the rise of geometric abstraction, was instrumental in the creation of Indiana’s iconic LOVE sculptures. Indiana credited Kelly’s insistence on pure color and form as a defining inspiration for the stacked letter composition, which would become one of the most recognizable images in contemporary art. In this installation, Kelly’s panels resonate with that legacy, emphasizing the power of abstraction to transform space, perception, and meaning helping us celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the IMA’s most important acquisitions.