Ellsworth Kelly: always one step ahead of everyone else. While most of the New York art world was over at Pace yesterday hanging out with Jay-Z, Mr. Kelly was down in Washington, D.C., hanging out with President Barack Obama. He received the National Medal of the Arts from President Obama, along with George Lucas, Joan Didion and a number of other luminaries. You can see the action in the photos above and below.
It’s shaping up to be a pretty big year for the artist. He turned 90 in May, and while his sterling shows at Matthew Marks and Mnuchin recently closed, he currently has one-person exhibitions at MoMA, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and, in D.C., the National Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection. He also produced a new work for Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation.
Congratulations, Mr. Kelly!
