Artwork by Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly was born on May 31, 1923 in Newburgh, NY and is best known for minimalist painting and sculpture. After serving in military during World War II, Kelly studied art in Paris from 1948 to 1954. During this time, Paris was the center for the European Abstract art movement. While Kelly was enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he was influenced by Byzantine art & Romanesque art and architecture, Surrealism and Neo-Plasticism.  After six years of study in Paris, Kelly returned to the United States in 1954, moving to New York City, where he became acquainted with Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, Fred Mitchell,  Agnes Martin, Jack Youngerman and Lenore Tawney. In 1956 Kelly began exhibiting his work at the Betty Parsons Gallery. Kelly’s works have been exhibited at the MOMA, The Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Tate Gallery, London and the Haus der Kunst, Munich. A leading American Modern Art painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Kelly was highly regarded in minimalism, color field painting, and hard-edge painting.  His work demonstrates masterful dominion of form, color and line. His work is often compared with that of Kenneth Noland and John McLaughlin.  Kelly’s original color screenprints, etchings, aquatints and lithographs are in high demand at modern art auctions.