Ellsworth Kelly

Although Ellsworth Kelly, who died at age ninety-two in December, insisted that the black-and-white photographs he took were not studies for his hard-edge paintings or Minimalist sculptures, it’s hard not to see echoes of the oddly shaped windows, barn doors, or neat stacks of bricks in his more well-known work. Kelly’s photos, over thirty of which are included in this show (the first time they’ve been exhibited), document simultaneously elegant and ramshackle architectural details the artist encountered in France (where he lived for several years after the war) and upstate New York (especially Spencertown, where he moved in the 1970s). Photos like Opening to a Cellar, Hudson (1977) and Broken Window, Paris (1978) share particularly close ties to the geometry of his shaped paintings, while others, such as Pine Branch and Shadow, Meschers (1950) and Under the Boardwalk, Long Island (1971), are more organic and naturalistic. —Leigh Anne Miller

Pictured: Ellsworth Kelly: Broken Window, Paris, 1978, gelatin silver print, 8â? by 12â?? inches. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York. © Ellsworth Kelly.