24+ Ellsworth Kelly Quotes On Art, Artwork And Standardized Testing

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter and sculptor known for his abstract works. He was a major figure in the development of minimalism and hard-edge painting in the mid-20th century. His works often featured simple shapes and bold colors, and he was also a pioneer in the use of shaped canvases. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Ellsworth Kelly on art, life, artwork.

Top 10 Ellsworth Kelly Quotes

1. The most pleasurable thing in the world, for me, is to see something and then translate how I see it.
2. In drawing, I don't erase. I believe the original gesture has to be the best.
3. My forms are geometric, but they don't interact in a geometric sense. They're just forms that exist everywhere, even if you don't see them.
4. Photography isolates the world via an aperture and gives the photographer the means to see differently, to achieve a spontaneous vision that is direct and uncompromising.
5. I noticed that the large windows between the paintings [in the Musee d'Art Moderne] interested me more than the art exhibited. From then on, painting as I had known it was finished for me.
6. I felt that everything is beautiful, but that which man tries intentionally to make beautiful; that the work of an ordinary bricklayer is more valid than the artwork of all but a very few artists.
7. I'm not interested in the texture of a rock, but in its shadow.
8. My drawings have to be quick. If they don't happen in 20 minutes or a half hour, then they're no good.
9. I did not want windows, only skylights. I chose my painting wall as it has the best morning light.
10. The negative is just as important as the positive.

Ellsworth Kelly Short Quotes

• Geometry is moribund. I want a lilt and joy to art.
• I believe people have to be open to what's happening when they're alive.
• I don't labor over my drawings. I want to get freedom in the line.

Ellsworth Kelly Quotes About Colorful

I'm not interested in edges. I'm interested in the mass and color, the black and white. The edges happen because the forms get as quiet as they can be. I want the masses to perform. When I work with forms and colors, I get the edge. — Ellsworth Kelly

All my paintings are usually done in drawing form, very small. I make notations in drawings first, and then I make a collage for color. But drawing is always my notation. — Ellsworth Kelly

Shape and color are my two strong things. And by doing this, drawing plants has always led me into my paintings and my sculptures. — Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly Famous Quotes And Sayings

All my work begins with drawings. I don’t labor over my drawings. I want to get freedom in the line. I like to be able to get swift curves in the plant drawings that are usually drawn in five to ten minutes. — Ellsworth Kelly

I think that if you can turn off the mind and look only with the eyes, ultimately everything becomes abstract. — Ellsworth Kelly

Shading is more like copying. And certainly I do copy, but I'm making drawings, and I'm not trying to make them with the shading. — Ellsworth Kelly

Everything that I saw became something to be made, and it had to be exactly as it was, with nothing added. It was a new freedom: there was no longer the need to compose. The subject was there already made, and I could take from everything. It all belonged to me: a glass roof of a factory, with its broken and patched panels, lines on a road map, a corner of a Braque painting, paper fragments in the street. It was all the same: anything goes. — Ellsworth Kelly

I have worked to free shape from its ground, and then to work the shape so that it has a definite relationship to the space around it; so that it has a clarity and a measure within itself of its parts (angles, curves, edges and mass); and so that, with color and tonality, the shape finds its own space and always demands its freedom and separateness. — Ellsworth Kelly

The form of my painting is the content. My work is made of single or multiple panels: rectangle, curved, or square. I am less interested in marks on the panels than the 'presence' of the panels themselves. In Red Yellow Blue III the square panels present color. It was made to exist forever in the present; it is an idea and can be repeated anytime in the future. — Ellsworth Kelly

Making art has first of all to do with honesty. My first lesson was to see objectively, to erase all meaning of the thing seen. Then only could the real meaning of it be understood and felt. — Ellsworth Kelly

The paintings to me are always canvas, sculpture has always been metal, though I have made sculpture in wood also. — Ellsworth Kelly

Life Lessons by Ellsworth Kelly

1. Ellsworth Kelly's work emphasizes the importance of simplicity in art, teaching us to focus on the essential elements of a painting and to create compositions with clarity and purpose.
2. His use of color and shape also demonstrate the power of contrast and juxtaposition, showing us how to create dynamic and visually interesting works.
3. Lastly, his work is a reminder to focus on the process of creating art and to experiment with different techniques and materials to find our own unique style.