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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 Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper (1987)

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More quotes by Ellsworth Kelly

I'm interested in the mass and color, the black and the white, the edges happen because the forms get as quiet as they can be.

There is always for me a dominant figure, I simply don't agree with people who see both readings as possible [of the figure ànd ground]

Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper (1987)

The form of my painting is the content.

Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper (1987)

I made the photographs just like I draw.. .I wanted the photographs [Kelly made circa 1950 in Paris] to be enlightening to my art..

I felt that everything is beautiful, but [not?] 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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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ellsworth Kelly (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.