Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923-2015)
Blue Curve (State I), 1988
One-color lithograph 37 ½ x 83 7/8 in.; 40 x 86 in. framed
Ellsworth Kelly is known for creating shaped monochromatic canvases using elemental colors and forms. Kelly extracts visual fragments—the wings of a bird, the arc of a rainbow, a Roman arch—and distills them into essential shapes and primary colors, removing all traces of illusionistic art. One of the preeminent American artists of the post-war generation, Kelly studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was influenced by the sculpture and painting of artists like Constantin Brancusi, Henri Matisse, and Jean Arp. During WWII, Kelly was one of several artists to serve in a military camouflage unit known as the Ghost Army which used visual deception on the battlefield to mislead the German army. Kelly’s work is in the permanent collections of most major national and international museums.
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