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 Georgia O'Keeffe, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Arnold Newman |
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PDF (856kb)  Who is the artist? Ellsworth Kelly What is the name of the artwork? Red Blue Green What materials were used? Oil paint on canvas Where is the artist from? United States When was the artwork made? 1963  Ellsworth Kelly was born in 1923 in New York. He began to study art in 1946 in Boston, and he also studied art in Paris from 1948-1954. In Paris, Kelly made art using only primary colors and basic shapes. He continued to do this when he moved back to the United States. Many of the shapes that Kelly uses in his paintings are from the shadows of trees and buildings. He also likes to experiment with colors to see how different colors appear next to one another. Often his color combinations trick our eyes into seeing funny things. .  Red Blue Green is an example of how Kelly likes to use simple shapes and colors in his artwork. In this piece, there is a basic red shape and a basic blue shape. These shapes are on top of a green background. None of the shapes are the same size and neither are too big or too small. The colors are balanced, which Kelly worked very hard to figure out. Kelly said that the shapes in this piece came from the shadows of a swing set. The picture was black and white, and he took the simple shapes and added colors. Can you see the outline of the swing set in this painting? Where do you see this? What part of the swing set do you think the artist painted? If you were to paint the outline of a swing set, which shapes would you use? How do you think these colors look next to each other? If you could change the colors, which colors would you choose? Why? Why do you think Kelly named this painting after the colors he used rather than after the swing set? What would you name this artwork?  Primary colors – The colors red, blue, and yellow. |
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Ellsworth Kelly United States, born 1923 Red Blue Green Oil on canvas, 1963 Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jack M. Farris, 1978.3 © Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego  |
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1919
1923 Ellsworth Kelly is born in the United States 1931 Star Spangled Banner is adopted as the U.S. national anthem 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American baseball player in the major leagues 1955 Elvis Presley becomes the first "rock star" 1963 Kelly paints Red Blue Green 1975
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