Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) Tribute List

Ellsworth Kelly, the renowned painter and sculptor, died on December 27, 2015 at the age of 92. At first glance, what Kelly produced for much of his career was the kind of thing that people are always mocking modern art for -- squares of colors on a canvas, yellow ovals painted on a white background and called "Yellow-White." But Kelly's work really benefits from a second look. His use of shape and color often accomplish what all great art is supposed to: it has the ability to change the way the viewer sees things, both in the museum and outside its walls. Here are ten vocabulary words from quotes by Ellsworth Kelly.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. notation
    a comment or instruction (usually added)
    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.
  2. relief
    sculpture consisting of shapes carved on a surface
    In Paris in the late '40s, I started making my first reliefs. They are separate panels. I wanted to do something coming out of the wall, almost like a collage. I did a lot of white reliefs when I started because I liked antique reliefs, really old stuff.
  3. collage
    a paste-up of pieces to form an artistic image
    In Paris in the late '40s, I started making my first reliefs. They are separate panels. I wanted to do something coming out of the wall, almost like a collage. I did a lot of white reliefs when I started because I liked antique reliefs, really old stuff.
  4. brooding
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    All my work comes from perceiving. I kept seeing things that were brooding in me. I'm not a geometric artist.
  5. moribund
    not growing or changing; without force or vitality
    Geometry is moribund. I want a lilt and joy to art.
  6. labor
    work hard
    I don't labor over my drawings. I want to get freedom in the line.
  7. inadequacy
    unsatisfactoriness by virtue of lacking necessary qualities
    “I had felt so negative at times. I had ended up as an artist – this is what I thought – because I didn’t feel I could do anything else. In the army, I’d had a kind of nervous reaction, which appeared on my face as a rash, and then there was my stammer, which was an inadequacy I got from my mother, I guess.
  8. voluptuous
    (of a woman's body) having a large bosom and pleasing curves
    They’re color paintings... a continuation of what I’ve been doing, but these are more voluptuous than my radial curves, which are very architectural. These new curves are free curves—more like our body curves, not fragments of a circle. I’m not fond of circles; they’re too complete. I love the curves of the body.
  9. nourish
    give food or nourishment to
    I always say I’m painting for the dead artists I like...The ones I think would understand what I’m ­doing. You put your paintings up against Matisse and Picasso and wonder, Am I producing art that is nourished by the past? I wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t looked at a lot of art. This is the mystery of it all: You have to look at art for a long time before you begin to understand.
  10. aperture
    a device that controls amount of light admitted
    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.
Created on Sun Dec 27 23:15:47 EST 2015 (updated Wed Dec 30 09:33:19 EST 2015)

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