Ellsworth Kelly quotes - page 2

My work is about structure. It has never been a reaction to Abstract Expressionism. I saw the Abstract Expressionists for the first time in 1954. My line of influence has been the 'structure' of the things I liked: French Romanesque architecture, Byzantine, Egyptian and Oriental art, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Klee, Picasso, Beckman.. (Ellsworth Kelly)
When I was a child, I spent all my spare time looking at birds and insects (beetles). My color use, and the object quality of the 'painting', and the use of fragmentation is closer to birds and beetles and fish, than it is to De Stijl or the Constructivists. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
The negative is just as important as the positive. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
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. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
Geometry is moribund. I want a lilt and joy to art. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
I don't labor over my drawings. I want to get freedom in the line. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
I did not want windows, only skylights. I chose my painting wall as it has the best morning light. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
The paintings to me are always canvas, sculpture has always been metal, though I have made sculpture in wood also. View quote
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)
When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I've got to draw. And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.' View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
Gray goes with gold. Gray goes with all colors. I've done gray-and-red paintings, and gray and orange go so well together. It takes a long time to make gray because gray has a little bit of color in it. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
One of the first drawings I did in Paris - I wasn't thinking of doing drawings, but somehow or other, I kept drawing - I bought a hyacinth flower with a lot of leaves, just to make me feel like spring. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
My drawings have to be quick. If they don't happen in 20 minutes or a half hour, then they're no good. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly
I don't like mixed colors that much, like plum color or deep, deep colors that are hard to define. View quote
Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly - Image
Photo: Jeremiah Garcia, CC BY 2.0
Occupation: American Painter
Born: May 31, 1923
Died: December 27, 2015
Quotes count: 42
Wikipedia: Ellsworth Kelly

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