Ellsworth Kelly (1923 - ) is an American abstract artist known for manipulating bold, singular colors into geometric shapes and for outlining plants to evoke the gracefulness of nature within a few deliberate lines. Through the mastery of printmaking techniques, Kelly has captured the essence of his lines and strokes and imbibed each print with life. His fascination with forms, textures and colors is evident in his work. Each piece creates a dialogue and will speak to each viewer differently. The extreme blackness of Wall, offset by a hint of white at the edges, might amuse or perplex while the textured, tactilely engaging stokes of Orange might cause a viewer to reach out to trace the strokes with a hand. Kelly’s plant lithographs, so minimal in form, might suggest coexistence between attachment and detachment while the delicate curve on Dark Blue might receive a completely different interpretation from each viewer.
(David Cohen, “Drawn from Nature: The Plant Lithographs of Ellsworth Kelly,” The New York Sun, June 8, 2006.)
