Brooklyn Bridge VII
Ellsworth Kelly
American, 1923–2015
1962
An oil painting that distills the Brooklyn Bridge into two bold white curves set against a deep blue field, aiming to translate a specific architectural experience into pure, monumental form.
The tall, narrow format pulls your gaze up and down as the opposing white arcs squeeze a dark central column, producing a tense, rhythmic presence that reads as both structure and symbol.
By reducing an iconic bridge to abstracted arcs, Kelly helped push postwar American art toward hard-edge, reductive investigations where observed forms become the basis for monumental, non-illusionistic painting.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
7' 8 1/8" x 37 5/8" (234 x 95.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Solomon Byron Smith
Accession
688.1980
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
