IN ELLSWORTH KELLY’S HANDS, an awning or an apple could be made to inspire euphoria—the most mundane things becoming the basis for the most destabilizing visual experience, and the most glorious. Over the course of eight decades, Kelly continually generated such moments of quiet cataclysm, changing not only the way we look but what we know, insisting on the irreducible specificity of every shape, every form, every experience, and giving himself over to it. This sustained investigation tantalizingly paralleled but could never quite be squared with Pop, Minimalism, or Conceptual art. In the pages that follow, six distinguished Artforum contributors pay homage to the artist and his inimitable eye.
YVE-ALAIN BOIS
RICHARD SERRA
ANN TEMKIN
TERRY WINTERS
MARY HEILMANN
MOLLY WARNOCK