{
"data": {
"id": 140139,
"accession_number": "1964.142",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Red Blue, 1962. Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923\u20132015). Oil on canvas; framed: 230 x 178 x 4 cm (90 9/16 x 70 1/16 x 1 9/16 in.); unframed: 228.6 x 176.4 cm (90 x 69 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1964.142. \u00a9 Ellsworth Kelly",
"current_location": "224A Contemporary Corridor",
"title": "Red Blue",
"creation_date": "1962",
"creation_date_earliest": 1962,
"creation_date_latest": 1962,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"LGBTQ+ (after 1900)"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Contemporary Art",
"collection": "CONTEMP - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 230 x 178 x 4 cm (90 9/16 x 70 1/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 228.6 x 176.4 cm (90 x 69 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 2.3,
"height_inch": 90,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 1.78,
"width_inch": 70,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"depth": 0.04,
"depth_inch": 1,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5625
},
"unframed": {
"height": 2.286,
"height_inch": 90,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 1.764,
"width_inch": 69,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Ellsworth Kelly",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed, dated and titled on back of cardboard backing",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304723,
"title": "Year in Review (1964)",
"description": "Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1964-12-08T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301294,
"title": "Works from the Contemporary Collection",
"description": "Works from the Contemporary Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 1-October 15, 1969).",
"opening_date": "1969-07-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 393229,
"title": "Contemporary Installation",
"description": "Contemporary Installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).",
"opening_date": "2021-04-12T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "The Dunn International. Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; (September 7\u2013 October 6, 1963); The Tate Gallery, London, England (November 14-December 22, 1963)",
"opening_date": "1963-11-14T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1964",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1964\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Kelly's abstract shapes were often based on observed reality, such as the plants that he kept in his studio.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Red Blue is all about the relation of two different colors and two different forms. On the surface of the canvas, two elements come together, interact with each other, and affect each other\u2019s appearance. The arrangement of the two colors red and blue, which work to intensify one another, is one essential component of the work. The other is the confrontation of two different forms: The edges of one shape-the blue rectangle-are given by the edges of the canvas and are therefore logical and measurable, while the organic form of the red color field, despite the clean, precise rendering, seems to breathe and float, activating the composition as a whole. In this way, even though there is no trace of the artist\u2019s hand, the painting refers to very natural and organic forms and ways of perception.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60469125"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Richardson, John. Dunn International; An Exhibition of Contemporary Painting Sponsored by the Sir James Dunn Foundation. Great Britain, Arts Council. Catalogues. 1963. Volume 2. [London]: Arts Council, 1963.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: fig. 41",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Greenberg, Clement. \u201cPost Painterly Abstraction,\u201d Art International 8 (Summer 1964).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 64",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cThe Language of Art,\u201d Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art (November 1964).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 226; Mentioned p. 227",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\u201cYear in Review for 1964,\u201d Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art (December 1964).",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 203",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n227"
},
{
"citation": "\u201cRecent Accessions in the American Field,\u201d Art in America 54 (May/June 1966).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 48",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art (1969).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 203",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 5",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 203",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n227"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 5",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/20thCenturyArtCMA/page/n5"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cReconstruction: A Painting by Jasper Johns,\u201d Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 1973).",
"page_number": "Mentioned p. 239; Reproduced: p. 241",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 254",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n274"
},
{
"citation": "Greenberg, Clement. \u201cAvant-Garde Attitudes: New Art in the Sixties,\u201d American Art-Readings from the Colonial Era to the Present (New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1980).",
"page_number": "Mentioned p. 326; Reproduced: p. 327",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 116",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Paik, Tricia Y., Ellsworth Kelly, Gavin Delahunty, Gary Garrels, Richard Shiff, and Robert Storr. Ellsworth Kelly, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 183, 362",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.142",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Betty and Max Ratner Gallery",
"athena_id": 140139,
"creators": [
{
"id": 3488,
"description": "Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923\u20132015)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1923",
"death_year": "2015",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1964-12-19T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1962,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1962",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-21 12:43:16.373000"
}
}