four ceramic forms on a grey background

Blanca Guerra Echeverria, American (b.1988), Looming Still, 2016, ceramic, underglaze, glaze, and luster. Purchased with funds from the CUAM Collectors Circle, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2016.13a-d. Photo: Wes Magyar / © Blanca Guerra Echeverria.

black and green fields

Ellsworth Kelly, American (1923 – 2015), Black/Green, 1970, from the “Series of Ten Lithographs”, 61/75, lithograph, 23 x 19 inches sheet. Gift of Johns Manville Corporation, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder, 99.04. Photo: CU Art Museum / © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Gemini G.E.L.

very detailed drawing of a pyramid

Agnes Denes, Hungarian | American (b. 1938), The Pyramids As They Were, 1994, Artist Proof 1/1, arches cover white with blue ink and silver dusting, 25 x 35 1/2 inches. Purchase with funds provided by Charles J. Tanenbaum, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder, 2008.12.01. Photo: Jeff Wells / © Agnes Denes.

Elemental Forms

July 15, 2017–May 12, 2018

Minimalism, Conceptualism and geometric abstraction prevail in Elemental Forms. Works by midcentury Modernists Annie and Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer and Ellsworth Kelly are combined with those of later Minimal and Conceptual artists, including Richard Anuszkiewicz, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt and Frank Stella. LeWitt’s early structure, 3 Part Set D (1966–69) offers a turning point for the exhibition, foregrounding the artistic exploration of systems and concepts that dominated Minimalism from the 1970s onward. Experimentations with color interaction, artistic process and instruction are on view in the prints, drawings, paintings and sculptures featured in the exhibition. Works by Olafur Eliasson, Callum Innes and Blanca Guerra Echeverria offer contemporary responses to the Modernist tradition. 

This exhibition was curated by Hope Saska, curator of collections and exhibitions, CU Art Museum.

View images of the exhibition installation here.