How American legend Ellsworth Kelly mastered colour and shape

A new monograph chronicles the pioneering American painter, printmaker and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly, from the war-torn 1940s to the final work before his death in 2015, and every colour-clad note in between.
Curated by art historian and Kelly specialist Tricia Paik, and shaped in close collaboration with the late artist, Ellsworth Kelly trace his transformation into one of the most illustrious artists of the last century. With scholarly interludes from key historians, curators and writers including Richard Shiff and Fary Garrels, the book is a comprehensive celebration of all that distinguishes Kelly’s work from his peers.
The second son of three, Kelly was born in Newburgh, approximately 60 miles north of New York City. His father was an insurance-company executive, and his mother a former schoolteacher. The family eventually relocated to the town of Oradell, New Jersey, where Kelly became interested in birdwatching. ‘I believe my early interest in nature taught me how to “see”,’ explains the artist in the monograph’s introduction, recalling the first time he saw a Redstart, ‘a small black bird with a few very bright red marks’.
Chatham X: Black Red, 1971, by Ellsworth Kelly, oil on canvas, two joined panels. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation.
In 1943, Kelly was drafted for US military service. Along with fellow artists and designers, he served in The Ghost Army, a top-secret unit formed to dupe the Axis forces with tools of deception including inflatable tanks, trucks, and fake radio transmissions during World War II. These years of subterfuge became a crucial source of creative inspiration; he found fascination in the space between the viewer and the painting, a void in which to absorb and intoxicate the onlooker with warped conceptions of space.
In 1948, he migrated to Paris and began to hone his signature hard-edge, channeling the surrounding architecture. Kelly brushed shoulders with fellow Americans including John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Alexander Calder, sparking a fresh zest for experimentation, colour field painting and abstraction. But in 1953 he was evicted from his Paris studio with only a single painting sale under his belt.
After retreating to New York, Kelly’s struggles persisted as he continued to try and crack the art market. By this point, his work was an aesthetic anomaly of the period – audiences at the time found it difficult to digest the European qualities and block-coloured punch of his work.
Ellsworth Kelly in his Spencertown studio, New York, 2012.
It was a media review of an Ad Reinhardt show that urged him to persevere, eventually landing his first New York exhibition in 1956 at Betty Parsons. ‘People didn’t really come to the show much. I felt embarrassed, I had to apologise for using bright colours!’ he recalled. Kelly’s art became increasingly audacious as the 1960s dawned. He settled into his groove and began to defy the conventional canvas format, trialing curved, layered and irregularly angled shapes; he wanted the canvases to be on par with its surface, not just a silent carrier.
Kelly is portrayed in the book not only as a vibrant powerhouse of American abstraction, but also as a premature minimalist, a singularity resistant to rejection, and a chromatic king who allowed colour to bring joy to the masses and roam unrestrained.
Colors for a Large Wall, 1951, by Ellsworth Kelly, oil on canvas, 64 joined panels. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation.
Ellsworth Kelly, published by Phaidon
Red Green Blue, 2002 (left) and Blue Black, 2001, by Ellsworth Kelly
White Plaque: Bridge Arch and Reflection, 1955, by Ellsworth Kelly, oil on wood, two panels separated by a wood strip. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation.
INFORMATION
Ellsworth Kelly, £75, published by Phaidon
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Wear Shihara’s minimalist strands of pearls and gold clasps however you see fit
Shihara gives a lesson in minimalist pearl jewellery with new collection ‘Node’
-
Alice Adams, Louise Bourgeois, and Eva Hesse delve into art’s ‘uckiness’ at The Courtauld
New exhibition ‘Abstract Erotic’ (until 14 September 2025) sees artists experiment with the grotesque
-
Caribbean cool meets mid-century glamour at this new LA hotspot
From golden mirrored chambers to jerk-spiced tomahawk steaks, Lucia reimagines Afro-Caribbean dining and design
-
Marlene Dumas’ charged, exposed and intimate figures gather in Athens
The artist’s work from 1992 until the present day goes on show at Athens’ Museum of Cycladic Art (until 2 November)
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
The gayest love story ever told: Jeremy Atherton Lin's memoir is a tribute to home
In 'Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told', Jeremy Atherton Lin mixes memoir with a historical deep-dive into marriage equlaity
-
Get lost in Megan Rooney’s abstract, emotional paintings
The artist finds worlds in yellow and blue at Thaddaeus Ropac London
-
Kaari Upson’s unsettling, grotesque and seductive world in Denmark
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is staging the first comprehensive survey of late artist Kaari Upson’s work
-
Inside the brilliant and short career of Paul Thek: 'The goal was to live a creative existence as a maker – and he lived in a saint-like fashion'
Paul Thek's paintings are now viewable at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, in an exhibition curated by Kenny Schacter and Jonathan Anderson.
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life stories
The artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film