14 September – 10 November 2013
The third appointment with major international art brought Ellsworth Kelly to the Coro della Maddalena, an American artist who made his mark in the history of contemporary art and is one of the best-known exponents of Hard Edge Painting.
Thanks to the Ceretto family’s sponsorship, the works of Kelly arrived in Alba just a few days after the end of the personal exhibition organised by the MoMA of New York to celebrate his 90th birthday.
For the exhibition here, Kelly had the idea of a project and a title that would be a tribute to an element of nature that is part of the Langhe, with the river Tanaro winding through its hills.
“Rivers” actually reflects the great love that Kelly nourished for water, since the first years of his stay in Paris, where he used to walk along the banks of the Seine.
Once he found himself interacting with the Baroque frame of the Coro, Kelly excluded the “classical” works of his career. The Kelly of “Rivers” is not the artist everyone recognises for his bright colours and essential geometry, the works on display in this exhibition go back to the youthful period of his painting research, and feature dichromatic black and white and mixed techniques.
