Ellsworth Kelly

1923–2015

Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Yellow over Dark Blue’ 1964–5
Yellow over Dark Blue 1964–5
© Ellsworth Kelly
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In Tate Modern

Artist and Society: A view from São Paulo: Abstraction and Society

Free entry
In Tate Modern

In the Studio: Ellsworth Kelly and Anish Kapoor

Free entry
In Tate Modern

Start Display: Room two

Free entry
See all artworks on display

Biography

Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 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, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.

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Colour field painting Hard-edge painting Post Painterly Abstraction 1 more art term …

Artworks

Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Yellow over Dark Blue’ 1964–5

Ellsworth Kelly Yellow over Dark Blue

1964–5
View by appointment P11222
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Méditerranée’ 1952

Ellsworth Kelly Méditerranée

1952
On display at Tate Liverpool part of Constellations L02465
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Nine Squares’ 1976–7

Ellsworth Kelly Nine Squares

1976–7
P77435
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Yellow Curve’ 1996

Ellsworth Kelly Yellow Curve

1996
On display at Tate Modern part of Start Display T07403
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘White Curve’ 1974

Ellsworth Kelly White Curve

1974
On display at Tate Modern part of In the Studio T03072
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Saint Martin Landscape’ 1979

Ellsworth Kelly Saint Martin Landscape

1979
P12117
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Black Square with Blue’ 1970

Ellsworth Kelly Black Square with Blue

1970
T07106
Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Orange Relief with Green’ 1991

Ellsworth Kelly Orange Relief with Green

1991
T07478
See all 120

Film and audio

Alex James on Ellsworth Kelly

'There’s something incredibly calming about simple geometric shapes'

Features

Ellsworth Kelly, ‘White Curve’ 1974
Art Term

Format

Format is traditionally used to describe the shape or proportions of the support, for example the canvas, of a painting ...

Photograph of a camouflage lesson featured in Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s The Ghost Army of World War II 2015
Tate Etc

Hidden Meanings: Ellsworth Kelly

Toby Heys

AUDINT member Toby Heys explores the background of Ellsworth Kelly’s minimal paintings – and the source of their coded messages

Ellsworth Kelly Spectrum I 1953
Tate Etc

Sixty years at full intensity: Colour Chart I

Christoph Grunenberg

Tate Liverpool’s exhibition Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today explores the moment in twentieth-century art when a group of ...

Francois Morellet and Ellsworth Kelly in New York 1968 two men speaking in the street
Tate Etc

65, 38, 21, 4, 72...: Colour Chart III

François Morellet

How Random Distribution of 40,000 Squares using the odd and even numbers of a Telephone Directory 1960 came into being

Tate Etc. issue 16 magazine cover
Tate Etc

Tate Etc. issue 16: Summer 2009

Tate Etc. Issue 16 Summer 2009; online version of Tate's magazine
Patricia van Lubeck Opel Kadett painted in dazzle design 1990
Tate Etc

Art, culture and camouflage

Roy R. Behrens

In 1896 the American artist Abbott H. Thayer published an article on how animals protected themselves with the use of ...

Related art terms

Colour field painting Hard-edge painting Post Painterly Abstraction Surrealism

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