Yve-Alain Bois, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, has completed volume two of his catalogue raisonné of American painter Ellsworth Kelly. Working with the artist’s estate, Bois has produced a thorough catalogue of the artist’s paintings, sculptures, and reliefs between the years 1954 and 1958, including high-quality reproductions of the art, history of ownership and exhibition, and bibliographic notes.
The first volume, published in 2015, is a comprehensive catalogue of the artist’s work from 1940 to 1953, which won Bois the inaugural François Pinault’s Prix Pierre Daix Prize. Documenting Kelly’s early years, the volume was written in collaboration with the artist himself, before his death the same year.
Bois wrote in Artforum the following April: “My first thought, when I got the news of Ellsworth Kelly’s death, was that the world had suddenly gone dimmer… I soon realized that I had been wrong to think that way. For the work remains, and it remains as a rock of optimism no matter how grim the world becomes around us. It is to this constant freshness that I would like to pay tribute.”
Yve-Alain Bois continues this project in Ellsworth Kelly, Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Reliefs and Sculpture, Volume Two, 1954–1958. It is the second of a planned five volumes published by Cahiers d’Art.
