Quote

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

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Ellsworth Kelly
Age: 92 †
Born: 1923
Born: May 31
Died: 2015
Died: December 27
Designer
Graphic Artist
Painter
Printmaker
Sculptor
Newburgh
New York
Felt
Erase
Art
Lesson
Firsts
Honesty
First
Lessons
Real
Meaning
Thing
Understood
Seen
Making
Objectively

More quotes by Ellsworth Kelly

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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.
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Geometry is moribund. I want a lilt and joy to art.
Ellsworth Kelly
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The paintings to me are always canvas, sculpture has always been metal, though I have made sculpture in wood also.
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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.
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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
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In drawing, I don't erase. I believe the original gesture has to be the best.
Ellsworth Kelly
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I did not want windows, only skylights. I chose my painting wall as it has the best morning light.
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I think that if you can turn off the mind and look only with the eyes, ultimately everything becomes abstract.
Ellsworth Kelly
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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.
Ellsworth Kelly
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The most pleasurable thing in the world, for me, is to see something and then translate how I see it.
Ellsworth Kelly