Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2016.

Scarlet Vertical Ellipse

Artist Ilya Bolotowsky (American, 1907-1981)

Date1980

MediumSilkscreen on paper

Dimensions30 1/2 × 13 in. (77.5 × 33 cm)
Overall, Frame: 34 1/4 × 24 1/4 in. (87 × 61.6 cm)

ClassificationsContemporary art

Credit LineGift of Brigitte de la Burde

Object number2016.25

On View

Not on view

DescriptionScarlet Vertical Ellipse joins Orange Tondo (Serigraph 29 x 29”, Gift of Forstmann-Leff Associates, 1979) in representing Bolotowsky’s unique response to the innovations of Piet Mondrian and Russian suprematists. The circular and oval formats reflect his experimentation with shaped canvases beginning around 1947, and his desire to assert even greater control, part of the search for order that govern the use of primary colors, and vertical and horizontal lines.

In Scarlet Vertical Ellipse, the use of large areas of red also reflect the influence of the abstract expressionists. Where Mondrian had used formulas to achieve perfected ratios in his works, Bolotowsky allowed the role of intuition in laying out the grid of his abstractions.