{"product_id":"hommage-a-kelly-by-irma-boom","title":"\u003ctc\u003eHommage à Kelly by Irma Boom\u003c\/tc\u003e","description":"\u003ctc\u003e\u003cheader\u003e\u003c\/header\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHommage à Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e was the first book in which Irma Boom used IBO paper—the paper she developed in collaboration with a German paper company—and the first self-initiated artist's book that she planned, edited and designed entirely on her own. The publication marks a remarkable series of firsts in Boom's career. This is hardly surprising, given that Ellsworth Kelly's abstract works had long been among Boom's greatest sources of inspiration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is titled \u003cem\u003eHommage\u003c\/em\u003e because Kelly passed away before the project was completed. She had been developing the concept long before his death and wrote him letters explaining the project and asking for his permission to publish it. Yet she never mailed them. Before she finally found the courage to send them, news arrived that Kelly had passed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile she was grieving his death, she received an unexpected invitation from Slewe Gallery in Amsterdam to present an exhibition devoted to her work. Seizing the opportunity, she decided to contact the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and propose producing a special edition limited to just ninety-nine copies. It brought together several impulses at once: a tribute to Kelly, a desire to give lasting form to an idea she had carried for years, and a wish to create an artist's book independent of commissioned design work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book is based on only a handful of Kelly lithographs that she had collected. Each print is relatively small—roughly the same size as the finished book. By devising an innovative folding structure, she transformed just a few printed forms into a volume of 1200 pages in which no two openings are ever the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer editorial method here also differs radically from the approach for which she is best known. Rather than orchestrating an abundance of diverse materials through bold editing, she works with the smallest possible visual vocabulary, leaving the original images entirely untouched. The result is an extraordinarily compelling book that invites the reader to turn its pages again and again. The shifting bands of color revealed through the act of turning pages evoke the tangible forms that may once have appeared before Kelly's own eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKelly often said that he wanted viewers to look only at the work itself, without thinking about its maker. It is a sentiment that seems entirely characteristic of someone who, as a frail child, spent countless hours birdwatching with his mother. After all, when we hear the beautiful song of a bird, who pauses to think about its creator? Is not the beauty before us enough?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnother of Kelly's aphorisms is equally revealing: \u003cq\u003eClose the mind's eye and look only with your eyes; in the end, everything becomes abstract.\u003c\/q\u003e Not the other way around—not closing your eyes to see. Kelly argues against perceiving the world through emotion or sentiment. This insight also captures \u003cem\u003eHommage à Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e perfectly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book contains no foreword dedicated to Kelly, no afterword, and no commentary. There is no body text, no table of contents, no page numbers, no captions, and no explanatory notes. It does not even have what we would ordinarily call a title page. Irma considers the black box to fulfill that role, yet even a dust jacket is absent. Everything that might distract from the experience has been stripped away, leaving the reader with nothing but pure form and color, to be perceived as they appear.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor this reason, \u003cem\u003eHommage à Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e remains one of the most original—and consequently one of the most celebrated—books among the more than five hundred books designed by Irma Boom. One cannot help wondering how beautiful the world might appear if we could, like Kelly, simply learn to \"look only with our eyes.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her recent publication \u003cem\u003eBook Activist\u003c\/em\u003e, she reflects on both \u003cem\u003eHommage à Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e and the 1971 monograph \u003cem\u003eEllsworth Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e from her own collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003csection class=\"quotation\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe following passage is quoted from \u003cem\u003eIrma Boom: Book Activist\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy \u003cem\u003eHommage à Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e and the Abrams monograph represent two radically different approaches to the artist monograph. The Abrams volume uses tipped-in plates on glossy paper and black-and-white images in ultra-matte gravure printing. This carefully structures the reader’s experience, distinguishing between Kelly the thinker and draftsman, and Kelly the painter. Every detail has been executed at the highest level of quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy \u003cem\u003eHommage\u003c\/em\u003e, by contrast, is not a reference work on his oeuvre but a personal interpretation of a small Kelly work from my collection. It is printed entirely in flat colors in offset. It distills Kelly’s artistic essence into pure color and form—with no imagery, no text—transforming the book itself into a sculptural, sensory experience of abstraction. Its minimalist presentation—monochrome panels filling page after page—creates rhythm, depth, and focus, echoing Kelly’s visual philosophy while simultaneously celebrating the book as a work of art. Contrary to my principle of the book as an affordable medium, \u003cem\u003eHommage à Kelly\u003c\/em\u003e was issued in only 99 copies, making it both rare and rather expensive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003c\/tc\u003e","brand":"FRAGILE BOOKS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55692837486760,"sku":null,"price":5583.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0559\/0050\/4232\/files\/ib_kelly_0019__0.jpg?v=1783048598","url":"https:\/\/en.fragile-books.com\/products\/hommage-a-kelly-by-irma-boom","provider":"FRAGILE BOOKS","version":"1.0","type":"link"}