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T. I. F. Stories
By Tatsumi Shinoda (Selection Director for Tokyo International Forum Artwork)
Artworks Gathered in “Ship of Diversity” 6

Ellsworth Kelly

It is Kelly’s work which you can see inside the large window of the outer wall when you look at the building from the moat side. On the wall surface of the inside halls, the “Red and Black” is set. You can see it from outside.

Since there are not many windows or colors on the outside wall, if you liken it to a man’s suit, it is like the edge of a folded showy pocket scarf peeking out from the line of the chest pocket.

Kelly’s work at the hall is clear plain red and black. When you are bored of analyzing nuances of colors, you will be refreshed by looking at Kelly’s work. Is it because it is actual colors unlike the novel of Stendhal, “The Red and the Black”?

Kelly, who draws square things fully to the border, as a child, experienced trampling down a square package of butter-like thing to make it spread on the whole square floor, as you can imagine from his later works.

Kelly’s picture at the International Forum looks like patterns of straight lines fully expanding. At first, I thought Kelly would not like the wall surface because there were chasms vertically and horizontally on the surface. However, when Kelly actually looked at the straight lines after visiting Japan, he did not have reservations about it at all.

Kelly, who is very precise, took the lines of chasms as a unit of size indication. He drew a design so that red and black panels can expand fully on the wall and sent it to the factory. Kelly visited the Forum again to verify the finish and installation. He looked very happy after seeing the work.

While waiting for panels to arrive from the U.S., we made an accurate panel of a full size model and tried to lift it from the entrance hall up the stairs. When crossing it at the entrance, it was possible to pass the panel through to the hall, diagonally. When reaching the large window on the stair, direct sunlight strongly struck. With this sunlight, I thought ordinary coating material might fall off.

On Kelly’s work, coating materials for airplanes is used so it will not fall off. It is strong and clear red and black which are sustainable under the direct sunlight. It is not beaten by the sun.