Artist Ellsworth Kelly dies at 92

Ellsworth Kelly&#039;s &quot;Spectrum VI.&quot;

(Image credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

published 28 December 2015

Famed artist Ellsworth Kelly, known for his use of bright colors and bold shapes, died at his home in Spencertown, New York, on Sunday. He was 92.

Kelly was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is found in contemporary art museums around the world. During World War II, he served in a special unit of the U.S. Army, primarily comprised of artists, that built fake tanks and trucks out of wood, burlap, and rubber in order to trick the Germans into thinking there were more allied troops in France than there actually were.

Following the war, Kelly lived in Paris and took photos that became the basis for his minimalist paintings. He said that his love of color came from his childhood in New Jersey, where he enjoyed nature and birdwatching. In 2013, he told NPR he liked "color in its strongest sense. I don't like mixed colors that much, like plum color or deep, deep colors that are hard to define. I liked red, yellow, blue, black, and white — [that] was what I started with." Kelly is survived by his longtime partner, Jack Shear.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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