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A tall, dark gray metal sculpture with a matte finish.

The sculpture is an oblong, dark in color with a non-reflective finish. It is wider at the top and bottom with a gradual decrease in width being narrowest in the center. The oblong stands on a base formed by bending the metal to a ninety-degree angle which is at the back, so the sculpture rises in a straight-line from the floor.

Gallery Text

With its frontal, planar, and pillar-like form, Curve X is reminiscent of an ancient funerary stele, but its streamlined shape and industrial material are a decidedly twentieth-century update to the weathered stone surfaces of antique monuments. Whether or not Kelly had this historical reference in mind when he produced Curve X in 1974, he made the allusion explicit when he gave the sculpture to the Harvard Art Museums in memory of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., a newspaper publisher, art collector, Harvard alumnus, and benefactor of the Harvard Art Museums. Notably, the title of the work is derived not from the object itself, but from the form of the space that seems to press into it on either side of the plank. By drawing attention to the void that lies outside the sculpture, Curve X becomes a monument to loss.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1993.214
People
Ellsworth Kelly, American (Newburgh, NY 1923 - 2015 Spencertown, NY)
Title
Curve X
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1974
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/226791

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1110, Modern and Contemporary Art, Mid–century Abstraction II
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Corten steel
Dimensions
304.8 x 50.8 x 51 cm (120 x 20 x 20 1/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: base: Kelly, Signed Date: 1974
  • inscription: on base: 1/3 EK 525
  • (not assigned): 3-5-2014 from conservation file note by Henry Lie: "Jed Cleary told us that Curve X is Corten steel, contrary to our records. We should correct our records in this rgard unless we can prove otherwise."

    9-15-21: A. Chang changed the media line from "weather steel" to "Corten steel."

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Ellsworth Kelly, Cast, 1974, Gift to Harvard University Art Museums, 1993.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of the artist in memory of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
Copyright
© Ellsworth Kelly Foundation
Accession Year
1993
Object Number
1993.214
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 88, ill.
  • Marjorie B. Cohn, Classic Modern: the Art Worlds of Joseph Pulitzer Jr., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2012), front cover

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 1110 Mid-Century Abstraction II (Post-Painterly Abstraction), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu