Ellsworth Kelly: New York Drawings 1954–1962

In this study, Richard Shiff argues that Ellsworth Kelly's return to New York in 1954 initiated an important shift in the artist's work: a move from systematic to nonsystematic chance. During the ensuing eight years, the visual vocabulary Kelly had begun developing in France — incidental compositions observed in bridges, windows, discarded envelopes — cohered in an important body of works on paper. Shiff's examination of these works yields new insights into the artist's oeuvre as a whole.