cover image Prints of Ellsworth Kelly

Prints of Ellsworth Kelly

Richard H. Axsom, Phylis Floyd. Hudson Hills Press, $50 (200pp) ISBN 978-0-933920-84-2

In minimalist drawings of a daffodil, seaweed, a catalpa leaf or oranges, Kelly strives to capture the bare essence of what he sees. His geometric abstractions depict mysterious, intensely brilliant shapes meant to exist beyond time or personal circumstance. Colors on a Grid is a jazzy syncopation a la Mondrian, but more intuitive. Other color field experiments are subdued and modulated, while Kelly's abstracts of sharp, flat-edged objects in black, gray and white deal with purely formal concerns. Embossed and debossed edges in some of the prints create ambiguous effects. The Saint Martin Landscape series toys lamely with erotic imagery and surreal juxtapositions. The text of this catalogue of a traveling exhibition curated by Axsom is set mostly in a soft gray type that is very difficult to read. (February 29)