As Ellsworth Kelly’s 100th birthday (31 May) approaches, major institutions are paying tribute to the master of hard-edged abstraction: the Museum of Modern Art’s Ellsworth Kelly A Centennial Celebration continues until 11 June, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Ellsworth Kelly: Reflections on Water and Other Early Drawings continues until 1 December and Glenstone in Potomac, Maryland, has just opened Ellsworth Kelly at 100 (until March 2024).
The late artist’s partner of many years, Jack Shear, marked the occasion last month by donating 146 of Kelly’s works to 19 different museums. Appropriately, Shear, who serves as the executive director of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, will be on hand at Tefaf New York on 12 May to participate in a panel about succession planning for artists and collectors. On the occasion of Kelly’s centenary, the artist’s foundation has given The Art Newspaper access to a trove of historical photos documenting his life and work in New York and beyond.