Ellsworth Kelly, Plant Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ellsworth Kelly, Briar, 1961.
Ellsworth Kelly, Briar, 1961.

Ellsworth Kelly’s approximately eighty plant drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art could be some of the most insubstantial artwork on view in the city at the moment and some of the most enjoyable.  In graphite on paper renderings from 1948 to the present of poppy flowers, beanstalks, ginkgo leaves and more, Kelly distills each plant into an easily identifiable outline that offers insights into the renowned abstract artist’s iconography.