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Learn about the life and work of Ellsworth Kelly, an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color field painting and minimalism. Explore his influences, education, career, and legacy in this comprehensive article.
Oct 13, 2011 · Learn about the life and art of Ellsworth Kelly, an American painter and sculptor who explored color, form, and space in his abstract works. Explore his drawings, paintings, and installations from the MoMA collection and beyond.
Learn about the life and work of Ellsworth Kelly, who made abstract paintings and sculptures inspired by nature, color, and space. Discover his influences, process, and legacy, from birdwatching to building design.
- Summary of Ellsworth Kelly
- Accomplishments
- Biography of Ellsworth Kelly
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Ellsworth Kelly has been a widely influential force in the post-war art world. He first rose to critical acclaim in the 1950s with his bright, multi-paneled and largely monochromatic canvases. Maintaining a persistent focus on the dynamic relationships between shape, form and color, Kelly was one of the first artists to create irregularly shaped ca...
Kelly intends for viewers to experience his artwork with instinctive, physical responses to the work's structure, color, and surrounding space rather than with contextual or interpretive analysis....Real-life observations are the backbone of Kelly's abstraction works, which are replications of the shapes, shadows, and other visual sensations he experiences in the world around him. As did the e...The subtle fluctuation between the meditative, decorative and industrial in much of Kelly's work can be traced in part to this design training in art school. In this sense, Kelly continues Henri Ma...Childhood
Born in Newburgh, New York in 1923, Ellsworth Kelly was the second of three boys. He grew up in northern New Jersey, where he spent much of his time alone, often watching birds and insects. These observations of nature would later inform his unique way of creating and looking at art. After graduating from high school, he studied technical art and design at the Pratt Institute from 1941-1942. His parents, an insurance company executive and a teacher, were practical and supported his art career...
Early Training
After his army discharge in 1945, Kelly studied at the Boston Museum of the Fine Arts School for two years, where his work was largely figurative and classical. In 1948, with support from the G.I. Bill, he returned to Paris and began a six-year stay. Abstract Expressionism was taking shape in the U.S., but Kelly's physical distance allowed him to develop his style away from its dominating influence. He enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, saying at that point, "I wasn't interested in abstrac...
Mature Period
After being well received within the Paris art world, Kelly left for New York in 1954, at the height of Abstract Expressionism. While his work markedly differed from that of his New York colleagues, he said, "By the time I got to New York I felt like I was already through with gesture. I wanted something more subdued, less conscious.. I didn't want my personality in it. The space I was interested in was not the surface of the painting, but the space between you and the painting." Although his...
Learn about Ellsworth Kelly's life, art, and ideas, and how he influenced Minimalism, Hard-edge painting, and Pop art. Explore his multi-panel paintings, reliefs, sculptures, and drawings inspired by nature and chance.
- American
- May 31, 1923
- Newburgh, New York
- December 27, 2015
Sep 5, 2024 · Learn about Ellsworth Kelly, an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker who was a leading exponent of the hard-edge style of abstract art. Explore his influences, works, awards, and legacy in this comprehensive article.
Learn about the life and work of Ellsworth Kelly, one of the most important abstract painters, sculptors and printmakers of his time. Explore his biography and chronology, from his birth in 1923 to his death in 2015, and his major exhibitions, awards and influences.
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Mar 4, 2024 · Learn how the artist developed his signature style of flat color and simple geometry from close observation of the world and his experience in France. Explore the history and meaning of his breakthrough painting Colors for a Large Wall (1951) at MoMA.
