“I think that most artists really are able to do the most powerful work when they are dealing with something that they know well and feel strongly about. It took me quite a while but I feel strongly about music. Ever since I was a child I’ve been hearing music. So that it’s very much a part of my existence.”
In the 1960s, Ellen Banks began her artistic career with figurative works in oil. She had her first solo exhibition in 1962 at the Dunbarton Galleries in Boston. Toward the end of the decade, she increasingly turned to abstraction; with the work Midnight Sail (1969), she became part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's collection.
1970's
The 1970s were a period of intensive exhibition activity and theoretical reflection for Ellen Banks. In 1970, she participated in the exhibition Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston, followed by solo shows at the National Center of Afro-American Artists (1972) and the Rose Art Museum (1973). From 1974 onward, she taught painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and, in 1979, published her theoretical essay The Unstated Diagonal.
1980's
In the 1980s, Ellen Banks developed her central artistic approach: the translation of musical scores into abstract painting. Beginning in 1981, she worked systematically with musical notation as visual source material. Staying in Amsterdam and Paris deepened her theoretical and artistic practice. In 1988, she created the series Nocturnes, which marks an important high point in her career.
1980's / Nocturnes
In 1988, Ellen Banks created her series Nocturnes, based on the compositions of the same name by Frédéric Chopin. Between 1827 and 1846, Chopin composed a total of 21 Nocturnes, the last three of which were published posthumously. Banks translated these musical pieces into visual form, producing 19 acrylic-on-canvas works that are all preserved in her estate. She created the Nocturnes during a transitional period, and it is likely that the illness of her second husband, Bernard Feld, played a role in their development.
1990's
The 1990s were marked by international exhibition activity. In 1992, Ellen Banks’ works were shown at the former Amerika-Haus in Berlin. This exhibition was a pivotal moment in her European career and simultaneously established the connection to Berlin that is of particular significance for the current work on her estate.
2000's
In the 2000s, Ellen Banks continued her international exhibition activities. At the same time, she continually developed her artistic practice. The works created during this period are an essential part of her extensive estate, which today forms the basis for a renewed engagement with her work.
© 2026 / Ellen Banks Archive