American - Artist | May 31, 1923 - December 27, 2015
When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I've got to draw. And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything.
Ellsworth Kelly
BeginningMeFeelDrawingWhiteSee
I'm interested in the space between the viewer and the surface of the painting - the forms and the way they work in their surroundings. I'm interested in how they react to a room.
WorkSpacePaintingReactWayRoom
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.
YouSeeExistSenseJustEven
I don't like mixed colors that much, like plum color or deep, deep colors that are hard to define.
ColorsColorDeepHardDefineLike
I always felt that a painted edge between two colors was a depiction somehow.
ColorsEdgeTwoAlwaysBetweenFelt
Geometry is moribund. I want a lilt and joy to art.
ArtJoyWantGeometry
The paintings to me are always canvas; sculpture has always been metal, though I have made sculpture in wood, also.
MeSculptureWoodCanvasAlways
All my work comes from perceiving. I kept seeing things that were brooding in me. I'm not a geometric artist.
WorkMeArtistSeeingThingsWere
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.'
PlantsLeafSaidSayOpenShape
I started doing sculpture in 1959. I had no commissions then. They were painted, similar in style to the paintings... At a certain point, I decided I didn't want an edge between two colors, I wanted color differences in literal space.
StyleSpaceColorsColorDoingEdge
I only like artists older than myself. Time is so important. It's always been the same way, I guess.
TimeMyselfImportantWayAlways
I learned my color in Europe. I've always been a colorist, I think. I started when I was very young, being a bird-watcher, fascinated by the bird colors.
BirdColorsColorThinkYoungBeen
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