SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego presents "Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue," on view through April 13, 2003. Ellsworth Kelly: Red Green Blue is the first exhibition to focus on a pivotal body of work from the years 1958 to 1965 through which Ellsworth Kelly established his reputation as one of the most important American abstract artists of the postwar period. Bringing together fourteen major paintings and thirty-five related drawings, collages, and photographs, Red Green Blue illuminates the processes by which Kelly distills his lines, forms, and colors from real-world sources. The project examines a selection of grand, powerful "figure/ground" paintings- rectangular canvases consisting of simple forms in one or two colors against a third "ground" color. The heart of the project is a group of large-scale paintings widely acknowledged as masterpieces- including MCASD’s Red Blue Green (1963)- that employ precisely balanced shapes as well as the harmonies and clashes between the colors red, green, and blue, to create a bold and dynamic compositional balance. With these virtuoso works, Kelly defined the interests and approaches that still drive his work today. Organized by MCASD, Red Green Blue travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, after its San Diego premiere. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue featuring essays by exhibition curator Toby Kamps, critic Dave Hickey, and scholars Roberta Bernstein and Sarah K. Rich.

The project is funded, in part, by a major grant from The Henry Luce Foundation/Luce Fund in American Art.