Ellsworth Kelly "Yellow With Red Triangle"

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Artist Jay Rolfe viewed Ellsworth Kelly's "Yellow With Red Triangle" at the Corcoran Gallery recently. It was painted in 1973. This photo, from the Corcoran's website, has the red a little too orange. It was definitely an orange red, but there was more red in it than shows in the Corcoran's image. Jay Rolfe's photo taken in the gallery which had a yellow-beige wall, shows a little more of the red.

Ellsworth Kelly At LACMA

Today involved much computer work (administrative) for artist Jay Rolfe rather than creating 3DSSC paintings.

Today's photo is "Blue Curve III" by Ellsworth Kelly painted in 1972. It is owned by and sometimes displayed at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), where I have seen it. Here's a link t the painting at LACMA's website. It's another of Kelly's non-rectangular paintings, and it could have influenced me if I'd noticed it first when I was ready to notice non-rectangular paintings (see my blog posts of February 16, 2007, February 27, 2007, and March 7, 2007). http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=36405;type=101

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's Unique Artistic Idea, his Hyper Representational 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses vibrant color, 3-D, recognizable shape, and huge size to reveal beauty, touch emotion in a positive way, and create an Uplifting Conversation Piece.

More painting ...

Yesterday Jay Rolfe finished painting two of his new 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings. After the paint has time to dry, I'll assemble them into finished form. Two days ago, on Monday, August 13, 2007, I posted a photo of me painting them.

Today's photo is another from my visit to the Metropolitan Museum this past Saturday, Ellsworth Kelly's "Spectrum V" from 1969. I like the vibrant color and the simplicity of this 13 panel painting.

That's the latest step of Jay Rolfe on his journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Was Marcel Duchamp correct? ... my journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso

Jay Rolfe has been painting today, working on 2 paintings one after the other. I'm going to set those aside - they're not finished - and assemble a painting I finished painting a couple of weeks ago. It's composed of 5 painted stretched canvas panels. It will probably be tomorrow before I can hang it and photograph it.

Yesterday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art I visited several exhibits that interested me aside from the Thomas Chimes exhibit I posted about yesterday. I again looked at the Ellsworth Kelly Exhibit of early paintings. He painted small in those days, and then went big.

I went as always to the Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary galleries. I really enjoy being in them. I went to the Marcel Duchamp gallery. He did some nice landscapes and portraits before his radical cubist paintings. His "Nude Descending a Staircase" was groundbreaking.

Duchamp was extremely influential with his so-called Readymades. Two of his most famous Readymades, "Bicycle Wheel" from 1916 and "Fountain" from 1917 caused critics, curators, and artists to expand their definition of art. Since then a work is "art" if someone who declares themselves an artist declares the work to be art, even if it is a urinal like "Fountain." Here are photos of them. Was Duchamp right? What do you think? Please post a comment if you'd like.

That's today's step on the journey of Jay Rolfe From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You can see some expressions of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea on his website at www.3dssc.com.

Jay Rolfe: Ellsworth Kelly at Matthew Marks Gallery ... my journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso

Don't you just love the future Jay Rolfe's projecting for himself? I do!

Last night I read a review in the March issue Art in America magazine of the Ellsworth Kelly exhibit at Matthew Marks Gallery in the Chelsea district of Manhattan which opened last November. I had previously read a review of the exhibit in the February issue of Art News.

I attended the opening of the Kelly exhibit at Matthew Marks on November 11, 2006. Matthew Marks seemed quite proud when I congratulated him on a great show.

I previously posted about other Ellsworth Kelly paintings on Feb 16, 2007 and an earlier conversation I had with him on Feb 27, 2007.

Ellsworth Kelly is known for his bright clear colors on paintings that are large and lately have only one or two colors and often have a shape other than a rectangle. There were some of those, and here is a photo of some of them.

The remarkable thing about the exhibit at Matthew Marks was that the featured paintings in the large 22nd St Gallery were exclusively black and white. That was unusual for Ellsworth Kelly. Here are some photos I took.

Of the black and white paintings, one reviewer said it was "the first exhibition of Kelly paintings to focus exclusively on form." The other said "the abandonment of colors ... a signature Kelly attribute - when denied, obliges viewers to concentrate on geometry and the juxtaposition of shapes." Both reviewers missed the point. I know because I asked Ellsworth Kelly.

Jay Rolfe said, "Mr. Kelly, what caused you to go from color to black and white?" Ellsworth Kelly said, "The war. There's no color in that." There you are, an artist's comment on the times, the Iraq war. That really explains this dramatic shift in his work. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Learning that was well worth the drive to New York.

That was another step on the journey of Jay Rolfe From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You can see some expressions of my unique artistic idea on my website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Jay Rolfe: More no coincidences ... my journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso

Don't you just love the future Jay Rolfe is projecting for himself? I do!

This is another example of "there are no coincidences" from my artistic life. I wrote in my post on Feb 16, 2007 of the influence one of Ellsworth Kelly's paintings had on me. It freed me to create my unique artistic idea of Three Dimensional Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings (3DSSC). As you might imagine, there are some technical difficulties in stretching canvas on shaped stretcher frames. In May last year I got the idea of trying to talk about some of those issues with Ellsworth Kelly who had been doing shaped canvases for over 50 years.

I got the feeling on a Thursday last June that I it was about time I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I'm a member and I go a number of times a year, and I hadn't visited in several months. It was time for me to go to the 20th Century and Contemporary wing and feel the beauty and peace I get when I soak in the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Duchamp, Newman, Kelly, Pollock, and others. Also the Brancusi sculptures. I always look forward to going.

The next morning, Friday, June 23, 2006, I had a strong sense that I should go to the Museum that morning. After a leisurely breakfast with my wife Randy Rolfe (http://www.randyrolfe.com/) we chatted for a while. Suddenly I felt a strong urge to leave for the Museum. I said to Randy, "Excuse me. I'm sorry, but I have a very strong urge to go to the Museum now. I don't know what's going on, but I think I should go. Can we finish this later?" Of course she agreed and I left.

When I arrived at the Museum I picked up the daily events list and glanced at it. I noticed that there was an ongoing special exhibit of Ellsworth Kelly paintings done in Paris and New York in the late 1940's and early 1950's in two galleries. What a coincidence for Jay Rolfe who wanted to meet Ellsworth Kelly and talk about shaped canvases! I guess I hadn't read my member newsletter carefully enough, because I wasn't aware of it. Anyway, I headed for it, stopping at the Impressionist galleries on the way to see some of my favorite paintings.

I finally got to the Kelly galleries was admiring the Kelly paintings, including one of his first shaped canvases, when I realized that Ellsworth Kelly and Museum Director Anne d'Harnoncourt were in the same gallery! I'm kind of shy, but I did work up the courage to speak to Mr. Kelly. He was very gracious, friendly, and engaging. I told him of the influence his "Blue Green Curve" (1972) had on me, and he told me about his first shaped painting. Anne d'Harnoncourt was also quite gracious. They were only in the gallery for a few minutes, and I was there at the exact right time. Coincidence? I don't think so.

That was another step on the journey of Jay Rolfe From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You can see some expressions of my unique artistic idea on my website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Jay Rolfe: First Step ... From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso

Ellsworth Kelly had a great influence on my art. Not only do I like his clear bright colors, I like the simple or minimalist design of his canvases. But what influenced me most was the shape of his canvases.

I went to a number of museums years ago. Somehow I developed the attitude that I'd seen that, been there, done that. I've totally changed my idea about that. Now I go several times a year to my favorite museums and feel energized and alive in the presence of my favorite paintings. Anyway, I hadn't seen an Ellsworth Kelly shaped canvas in many years.

October 13, 2003, was one of those days that changed my life. I was in Los Angeles with my wife Randy Rolfe visiting our daughter. She took us to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LA MOCA). It was quite a day. We parked the car and walked past the brand new, Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. Its titanium skin gleamed in the bright sunlight. It was dramatic and beautiful, and scheduled to open the next day.

Inside LA MOCA we saw an exhibit of Frank Gehry architectural models. It was amazing. Then we looked at the contemporary paintings. We were enjoying paintings by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Morris Louis, James Rosenquist, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Franz Kline, and others.

When we entered one gallery, I got very excited. My wife and daughter thought there was something wrong with me. I felt like I was about to jump out of my skin. It was an Ellsworth Kelly shaped canvas that grabbed my attention. Not one of his basically rectangular canvases with a curved side, but a very dramatic triangle on its side like an arrowhead. I was thinking, "I don't have to paint rectangles! Jay, you don't have to paint rectangles!" My wife and daughter didn't understand why I was so excited, but they knew that all artists are a little nuts so it was okay. Here's a photo of my and my wife standing next to that painting which is called Blue Green Curve.

Ellsworth Kelly's Blue Green Curve was painted in 1972. For an image in LA MOCA's permanent collection, click on this link. http://www.moca.org/museum/pc_artwork_detail.php?acsnum=85.57&keywords=Ellsworth%20Kelly&

That was the first step to my unique artistic idea on my journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You can see the results of Jay Rolfe’s unique artistic idea at www.3dssc.com.

By the way, don’t you just love the future Jay Rolfe is projecting for himself? I do!