Ellsworth Kelly, 1923 - 2015

Ellsworth Kelly, Train Landscape, 1952-3

Ellsworth Kelly died 27 December 2015.
In both reproduction and literal description Ellsworth Kelly's Modernist abstractions can seem banal; however, this belies the grand, voluptuous physical presence of these majestic paintings experienced in a gallery.
The often subtly shaped canvases (frequently curved), the precisely scaled, toned and juxtaposed expanses of pure colour achieve a rare spiritual and sensual effect that is unique to this artist. Indeed, it is difficult to locate Kelly tidily amongst his forbears and peers: his work is more cool and subtle that most of the Abstract Expressionists, more sensual and spiritual than the Post-Painterly Abstractionists such as Stella and Noland, and more expressive than the Minimalists. Mark Rosenthal aptly describes Kelly's work as exuding "an ineluctable presence, an aura of something palpable" and traces his aesthetic to the artist's interest in Romanesque and Gothic architecture, to Egyptian pyramids and Sung vases as well as to the Modernism of Mondrian and Brancusi; Kelly also collected archaic stone objects for what he termed their "aura of shape". (1)
Alongside his bold, simple colour abstractions Kelly throughout his life drew from nature - his spare outline drawings of plants contributing to the shapes of his paintings. But it will be for the potent distillation of colour that Kelly is remembered as a major post-war American painter.
Read a recent interview with the 92 year old Kelly by Jason Farago.
Read obituaries by Christopher Masters, Holland Cotter, and in The Telegraph
(1) Waldman, D. ed. (1997) Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, London: Tate Gallery, pp62-3
Click on images to enlarge

Ellsworth Kelly, Window, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, 1949

Ellsworth Kelly, Painting for a White Wall, 1952

Ellsworth Kelly, Rebound, 1959

Ellsworth Kelly, Orange Red Relief, 19596

Ellsworth Kelly, Gate, 1959

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963

Ellsworth Kelly, Orange Green, 1964

Ellsworth Kelly, Yellow Piece, 1966

Ellsworth Kelly, Dark Blue Curve, 1995

Ellsworth Kelly, Four Sunflowers, 1957

Chris Burden, 1946 - 2015

Chris Burden, Trans-Fixed, 1974

Chris Burden died 10 May 2015.

Joe the lion, went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house
An' he said, "Tell you who you are
If you nail me to my car"

David Bowie, Joe the Lion, 1977

Bowie's song alludes to Chris Burden's 1974 Body Art event, Trans-Fixed:

TRANS-FIXED, Venice, California, April 23, 1974. Inside a small garage on Speedway Avenue, I stood on the rear bumper of a Volkswagen. I lay on my back over the rear section of the car, stretching my arms onto the roof. Nails were driven through the palms into the roof of my car. The garage door was opened and the car was pushed halfway out into Speedway. Screaming for me, the engine was run at full speed for two minutes. After two minutes the engine was turned off, and the car pushed back into the garage. The door was closed.

Other performances included: 

Shoot (1971) in which he was shot in the arm by a friend with a .22 rifle. Watch a video of the event.

Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971

Through the Night Softly (1973) in which he crawled through a 50-foot-long pile of broken glass in his underwear, with his hands tied behind his back: watch the video. (This was featured as one of Burden's TV Commercials.)

Chris Burden, Through the Night Softly, 1973

By the end of the 1970s, after 54 performance events, Burden abandoned performance art and turned to sculpture. Works include:
All the Submarines of the United States of America (1987)

Chris Burden, All the Submarines of the United States of America, 1987

 The Other Vietnam Memorial (1991) which lists the names of 3 million Vietnamese killed during the Vietnam War.

Chris Burden, The Other Vietnam Memorial, 1991

Urban Light (2008) comprising 202 vintage streetlights installed in the plaza at the LA County Museum of  Art.

Chris Burden, Urban Light, 2008

See more examples of Burden's work at Everything You Need to Know About Chris Burden's Art Through His Greatest Works; watch a video tour of Burden's retrospective Extreme Measures at The New Museum in 2013. Read obituaries by Jon Bewley and Jonty Tarbuck in The Guardian and by Christopher Knight in Los Angeles Times. Read a 1975 feature by Roger Ebert: Chris Burden: "My God, are they going toleave me here to die?"

Albert Irvin, 1922 - 2015

Albert Irvin, Cathay, 1979 (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin died 26 March 2015.
I am very sad to hear of the death of Albert Irvin. I met Bert in the 1980s when he was teaching at Goldsmiths and I worked in the art library there. He was a charming, generous man and a great painter. He was completely dedicated to his art -  passionate about colour and the very stuff of paint: Turner was his 'home-bred god'.
Irvin left art school in 1950 and so was of the generation to experience the fresh impact of American Abstract Expressionism, notably through exhibitions at the Tate (Modern Art in the United States, 1956, The New American Painting, 1959) and the Whitechapel (Jackson Pollock, 1958). Irvin responded to the gestural energy and large scale of the American painting and in due course fully embraced total abstraction, developing his own distinctive formal language.
For me, the work of the late 1970s and early 1980s is particularly wonderful: to enter a gallery of these large, open, gorgeously coloured paintings is a joyous experience.
The paintings illustrated here are some of my personal favourites.
Read obituary by Mike Tooby.
Watch a short video of Irvin talking about his work in the Tate  and on the occasion of his retrospective at King's Place Gallery.
Read an article by Sam Cornish at Abstract Critical.
See more work at Albert Irvin website and at BBC - Your Paintings.

Albert Irvin, Glow, 1971 (5' x 6')

Albert Irvin, Cressy, (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin, Hannibal, 1975 (8' x 14')

Albert Irvin, Nightingale, 1977 (5’10” x 6’8")

Albert Irvin, Paradise, 1979 (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin, Plimsoll, 1979 (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin, Mile End, 1980 (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin, Orlando, 1980 (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin, Sul Ross, 1981 (7' x 10')

Albert Irvin, Linden, 1983 (7' x 10')