Ellsworth Kelly, a renowned American painter and sculptor, will be celebrated in a major survey exhibition titled Ellsworth Kelly at 100, taking place at M7 in Doha, Qatar. This retrospective commemorates Kelly’s seven-decade career and marks what would have been his 100th birthday in 2023. Organised by Glenstone Museum, the exhibition will showcase a comprehensive selection of Kelly’s works, spanning various media such as painting, sculpture, works on paper, collage, and photography.
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) is known for his unique style that drew inspiration from nature and the world around him, shaping American abstraction in the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition will feature key works from pivotal periods in Kelly’s career, highlighting pieces such as the groundbreaking Painting for a White Wall, 1952, and Painting in Three Panels, 1956. Visitors will also have the opportunity to view examples from Kelly’s Chatham and Spectrum series, as well as his plant drawings and rarely exhibited photographs.
One of the highlights of the exhibition will be Yellow Curve, 1990, a large-scale floor-based painting that exemplifies Kelly’s exploration of the relationship between color and architecture. The installation, spanning over 60 meters of floor space, will offer visitors a unique insight into Kelly’s artistic vision. Maha Ghanim Al Sulaiti, director of M7, expressed the hope that Kelly’s work would inspire audiences to pay closer attention to the creativity in the world around them.
Ellsworth Kelly at 100 will feature nearly 70 works from Glenstone’s collection as well as major international museum lenders, including Centre Pompidou, National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition has already debuted at Glenstone and Paris, and is now making its way to Doha as part of the legacy project of the Qatar–USA 2021 Year of Culture. With works spanning from 1949 to 2015, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the evolution of Kelly’s artistic practice and his enduring impact on the art world.
Emily Wei Rales, director and co-founder of Glenstone, praised Kelly’s ability to fundamentally alter the ways in which we perceive the world through his art. She described the collaboration with Qatar Museums as an honor and an opportunity to introduce Kelly’s groundbreaking work to the Gulf region. The presentation of Ellsworth Kelly at 100 in Doha is set to run from October 31, 2024 to February 2025 at M7, offering art enthusiasts in the region a unique opportunity to experience the legacy of this influential artist.
