Ellsworth Kelly, American artist, Died at 92

  Artists

Ellsworth Kelly was born on May 31, 1923, and died on December 27, 2015.

He was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field paintings and the minimalist school.

After he finished high school, Ellsworth Kelly studied first at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, from 1941 until he was inducted into the Army on New Year’s Day 1943.

Most of Kelly’s work demonstrates unassuming techniques emphasizing simplicity in its form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland.

Ellsworth lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.

He is the son of Allan Howe Kelly and Florence Bithens Kelly.

John James Audubon was his influence and his genuine interest in bright colors, that drove his passion for the two- and three-color paintings, such as the Three Panels: Red Yellow Blue, I, in 1963.

During his time with the army, Ellsworth Kelly requested to be assigned to the 603rd Engineers Camouflage Battalion, which took many artists.

Kelly was inducted at Fort Dix, New Jersey and sent to Camp Hale, Colorado, in which he was trained with the mountain ski troope.

He served with the unit from the year 1943, until the end of the European phase of the war.

Ellsworth used the G.I. Bill to study from 1946 to 1947 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

He was a pioneer of hard-edge painting in the 1940s and 1950s.

After Kelly heard about Max Beckmann on the French artist Paul Cézanne in 1948 Kelly move to Paris, then he took an interest in John Cage and Merce Cunningham.

The duo had been experimenting in music and dance, respectively; the French Surrealist artist Jean Arp and the abstract sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, whose simplification of natural forms had an lasted effect on him.

Ellsworth has done Curating work during his career along with other things like Lithographs and drawings, Painting, and Sculptures.

He had his own style and very subtle and implies perfection, such work as his work called, ‘Block Island Study’ (1959).

Ellsworth Kelly lived with his partner from 1984 to his death.

His partner was photographer Jack Shear, who serves as the director of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation.

Ellsworth Kelly passed away at 92 yrs old.