Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly was an American artist and sculptor, an outstanding figure in post-war abstract art. His paintings with large abstract figures, bold and contrasting combinations of colours, influenced the development of Minimalism, colour field painting and hard-edge painting.

The main goal of Ellsworth Kelly was to change the concept of people about the world, to make them see familiar things in a completely new way. His art is very different from the work of other American artists. While abstract expressionists and representatives of the “action painting” worked based on intuitive subconscious acts, Kelly took real-life objects as a basis. Simplifying their form as much as possible and cutting off everything unnecessary and secondary, he depicted the essence of things, which can only be understood with the help of a simple look, without participation in this process of intellectualization and any particular emotions.

The style of Ellsworth Kelly was formed under the influence of European painting. After serving in the army during the Second World War, he did not immediately return to his homeland but stayed for several years in Paris, where he studied at the School of Fine Arts and talked with representatives of avant-garde painting. Kelly returned to America as a mature artist. He presented his works to art experts; in those pictures, pure colour and shape were important, and a plot and individual vision were not.

In addition to large-scale paintings, Ellsworth Kelly created lithographs and abstract sculptures from painted aluminum. His sculptural compositions, like his paintings, were created based on the interaction of the shape and colour of objects, taking into account their location in the surrounding space.

Key ideas:

– Kelly’s painting is focused on the physical interaction of the viewer and the art. Huge canvases with different colour areas are directly perceived by the person’s subconscious, giving them a strong emotional reaction and unusual physical sensations. The artist preferred not to explain the meaning and history of the creation of his works but simply suggested that the viewer should spend some time alone with the canvas and independently feel its energy.

– Ellsworth Kelly was the founder of Hard-edge painting (painting of hard contours). Unlike Abstract Expressionism, figures in his works have clear edges, although they are not strict geometric figures. This method of work is characterized by the absence of sudden forms, flat, uniformly coloured fields and great attention to the interaction of the object and space. Kelly’s painting leaves no room for a fantasy flight but puts the viewer in the circumstances already prepared for him.

– In his works, Ellsworth Kelly tried to reduce the influence of emotions and personality. He strove to create pure colours and forms, in which the artist’s manner does not matter. Kelly often resorted to the method of randomness, when a composition is created using the spontaneous connection of objects. This manner was inherent in the early work he performed during his stay in Paris. In the late period of his career, the artist acted from the opposite – he carefully analyzed every bend of the form and the lightest shade of colour.

– In the American period of his work, Ellsworth Kelly used irregularly shaped canvases. These works usually have a multilayer structure in which one image prevails over another, creating complex effects with simple primitive forms. A large role in these works is still given to colours, which, along with forms, create the space. Many works evoke impressive optical illusions, bringing Kelly’s art similar to op art.