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Ellsworth Kelly
Red Curves, 1996

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Red Curves
Artist name
Ellsworth Kelly
Date created
1996
Classification
painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
142 in. × 65 1/2 in. (360.68 cm × 166.37 cm)
Credit
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Photo credit
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Copyright
© Ellsworth Kelly
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/FC.603
Artwork status
On view on floor 4 as part of Freeform: Experiencing Abstraction

Audio Stories

What shapes do you see in this painting?

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transcripts

SFX: Music to give a sense of thoughts — like pinpoints — coming and going. The following voices are a collage, sometimes overlapping, sometimes fading up, sometimes cutting off the previous comment.  

 

MAN 1: It looks like the cross section of a distant planet …

 

MAN 2: … a beautiful slice of red mango …  

 

WOMAN 1: It’s a wound. It’s cut open, and it’s harsh and sharp.

 

SARAH ROBERTS: We all have that experience of something you saw as a child that you’ll never forget or an image that just stays with you forever. 

  

NARRATOR: Curator Sarah Roberts

 

ROBERTS: And he’s finding ways to pull those out of his mind and give them a physical presence in the world. 

 

WOMAN 2: … A little red Corvette. This kind of really bright color and this kind of really voluptuous curve …

 

SFX: The sound of a sports car engine 

 

WOMAN 3: Something like sticking out of a pocket, I don’t know.  

 

WOMAN 2: Or the curve of a hip.  

 

MAN 2: A cartoon candle flame.  

 

SFX: A match being lit 

 

WOMAN 4: … discarded piece of your fingernail on the floor … 

 

WOMAN 2: It makes me think of melted crayons …

 

MAN 1: The wind and a spinnaker sail on a sailboat. It seems to be moving out and away.  

 

SFX: Wind and sea birds. Music fades. 

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