Getting at the Rapture of Seeing: Ellsworth Kelly and Visual Experience

Abstract

It may be exaggerated to call Ellsworth Kelly “the most profoundly classical of all American artists,” as one London critic put it, but I am persuaded that his singular vision and achievement deserves even higher ranking than it has until recently received in the annals of 20th century American art.¹ A series of recent exhibitions, and in particular, the great international retrospective of 1996–1997 have added new luster to his reputation (whereas the Museum of Modern Art’s equally ambitious 1996 retrospective of Jasper Johns had just the opposite effect).² After more than 50 years of artistry, Kelly has proven himself remarkably consistent, independent, and, yes, even morally inspiring.

I propose that any depiction ... invites the eye to exercise a certain practical “interpretive” capability. The eye “interprets” the task set to it by the painting. The task is a lifeworld task, not a theoretical one; it is meaningful to the viewer in practical, descriptive, and human narrative terms. — Patrick Heelan, S.J., Van Gogh’s ‘Modern’ Use of Perspective