White Curve VIII 1976

Ellsworth Kelly made this painting, called White Curve VIII, out of canvas and paint. It's striking how the simple curve separating the white from the dark seems so absolute. I bet Kelly wasn’t thinking about expression, so much as something more, well, definite. I bet he was interested in the shape itself, that curve. When I look at it, I imagine what it might have been like to be Kelly, setting up the canvas, mixing the paint, and then, with a deep breath, committing to that first stroke. The paint looks flat, evenly applied, without texture. It’s like he’s saying, "Here it is, take it or leave it." Kelly, like other painters such as Carmen Herrera, took painting in a new direction, a direction towards a more essential distillation. They were thinking and inventing and re-inventing what a painting could be. It’s a challenge to other painters, a dare, almost.