Kelly, Ellsworth

Kelly, Ellsworth (b Newburgh, NY, 31 May 1923).
American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. In the mid-1950s he became recognized as one of the leading exponents of the Hard-Edge style that was one of the reactions against Abstract Expressionism. His paintings are characteristically very clear and simple in conception, sometimes consisting of a number of individual panels placed together, identical in size but each painted a different uniform colour (he started using this formula in 1952). He was also one of the first artists to develop the idea of the shaped canvas. Kelly has also worked in various printmaking techniques and in sculpture (using painted cut-out metal forms—often industrially manufactured—related to those in his paintings).