Paul Klee builds himself a little house of art in a realm somewhere between childhood’s innocence and everyman’s prospect of infinity… [He] believes that art is nothing if it is not personal expression–that love must come back to its vacant dwelling. –Duncan Phillips, 1942
Tag Archives: birthdays
Ben Shahn, Born this Day 1898

Ben Shahn, Still Music, 1948, Casein on fabric mounted on plywood panel 48 x 83 1/2 in.; 121.92 x 212.09 cm.. Acquired 1949. Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
Ben Shahn‘s painting Still Music (1948) was created after he produced a series of drawings on commission for CBS radio network brochures in 1948. Shahn also printed a nearly identical serigraph (or screen print) called Silent Music in 1950. Discussing his thoughts on working in both fine art and commercial art, Shahn said in a 1965 television interview, “I never let out a thing until I’d be as happy with it hanging in a museum or reproduced in a daily newspaper. I don’t care where.”
Ellsworth Kelly at 90

One of the seven multi-panel works by Ellsworth Kelly that will be on view at the Phillips June 22-Sept. 22, on the occasion of the artist’s 90th birthday year. Ellsworth Kelly, Green Blue Black Red, 2007. Oil on canvas, four panels, 345 x 217 in. Private collection. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson, courtesy the artist © Ellsworth Kelly
Today is Ellsworth Kelly’s 90th birthday! In just three weeks, we open Ellsworth Kelly: Panel Paintings: 2004-2009, joining a host of sister institutions in celebrating the milestone birthday year of this acclaimed artist. Early this month, Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation opened Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture on the Wall. Just last week MoMA put on view the artist’s Chatham Series, reunited for the first time since 1972. A few days later a retrospective of Kelly’s prints opened at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Here in town the National Gallery of Art is showing a series of luminous handmade paper images that the artist made in 1977. Happy birthday Mr. Kelly!