About the Artist
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly (1923 – 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and Minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form. Kelly often employed bright colors. Growing up, his family lived near the Oradell Reservoir in New Jersey, where his paternal grandmother introduced him to ornithology when he was eight or nine years old. There he developed his passion for form and color. John James Audubon had a particularly strong influence on Kelly's work throughout his career. Author Eugene Goossen speculated that the two- and three-color paintings for which Kelly is so well-known can be traced to his bird watching and his study of the two- and three-color birds he saw so frequently at an early age. Kelly has said he was often alone as a young boy and became somewhat of a "loner". He had a slight stutter that persisted into his teenage years. Kelly's admiration for Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are apparent in his work. He trained himself to view things in various ways and work in different mediums because of their inspiration.
