Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kellywas an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing simplicity of form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth31 May 1923
CountryUnited States of America
forms interested painting react space surface viewer work
I'm interested in the space between the viewer and the surface of the painting - the forms and the way they work in their surroundings. I'm interested in how they react to a room.
drawings drawn five swift ten
I like to be able to get swift curves in the plant drawings that are usually drawn in five to ten minutes.
felt painted
I always felt that a painted edge between two colors was a depiction somehow.
developed fascinated paris saw
In Boston, I developed my eye from the drawing. In Paris, I was fascinated by what my eye saw in the way that Paris is built, its 'measure.'
black-and-white color want
I'm not interested in edges. I'm interested in the mass and color, the black and white. The edges happen because the forms get as quiet as they can be. I want the masses to perform. When I work with forms and colors, I get the edge...
drawing lines want
I don't labor over my drawings. I want to get freedom in the line.
sculpture woods painting
The paintings to me are always canvas; sculpture has always been metal, though I have made sculpture in wood, also.
drawing half hours
My drawings have to be quick. If they don't happen in 20 minutes or a half hour, then they're no good.
drawing
All my work begins with drawings.
drawing trying copying
Shading is more like copying. And certainly I do copy, but I'm making drawings, and I'm not trying to make them with the shading.
call close draws essence everybody leaves shape
Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'
brooding geometric kept work
All my work comes from perceiving. I kept seeing things that were brooding in me. I'm not a geometric artist.
paintings searching
My ideas come, wh-pheww. And I draw. Just recently, when I'm searching for ideas for paintings and sculptures, I wait for ideas, and it's always visual.
draw drawing enjoy grew school taught
I was taught to draw very well when I was in school at Boston. And I grew to enjoy drawing so much that I never stopped.