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Ellsworth Kelly
La Combe III, 1951

Artwork Info

Artwork title
La Combe III
Artist name
Ellsworth Kelly
Date created
1951
Classification
painting
Medium
oil on linen
Dimensions
63 1/2 in. × 44 1/2 in. (161.29 cm × 113.03 cm)
Date acquired
1999
Credit
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab
Copyright
© Ellsworth Kelly
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/99.347
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Kelly on the everyday inspiration for La Combe III

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transcripts

SFX: MUSIC fades up something mid-century modern 

 

KELLY: I began seeing things in Paris that I lifted. You know, I made drawings of things, ideas of structure.

 

NARRATOR: Like this painting. Ellsworth Kelly began with something we all see every day. Although most of us probably have never seen it quite the way he did. 

 

SFX: Gentle breeze, lapping waves, sea bird calls.  

 

KELLY: I was invited to a summer place near the ocean. And I was interested in doing collages in which I would tear them up and put them back together again. And when I saw this stairwell, I said, Oh, this is fascinating.  

 

NARRATOR: Did you hear that? He was looking at a stairwell. 

 

KELLY: I watched it change with the sun, you see.  

 

NARRATOR: He painted the pattern of the shadows skipping down the steps.  

 

SFX: Music skips, as if down steps — give it a moment to engage the eye 

 

KELLY: I like to leave my paintings to be mysterious. I like them to be open. I feel like they have to be looked at, they have to be investigated. 

 

SFX: Music fades 

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