CSC108 - Ellsworth Kelly and Color Field Painting

Course Description

Step into the world of Ellsworth Kelly, one of the most important post-war American artists, whose artistic revolution lay in his departure from the Abstract Expressionist works that dominated the 1950s New York art scene. Kelly's monumental canvases defied the conventional spatial constraints, offering bold, lyrical abstractions rooted in nature. He explored the delicate balance between perceptual reality and elemental abstraction. Kelly's sculptures challenged dimensions; his drawings, especially early renditions of plant forms, embraced simplicity, delineating objects with contour lines. Within the post-World War II Color Field movement, Kelly's work resonated and helped to shape a transformative period in art history. Discover the defining works of Ellsworth Kelly's prolific career and compare them to those of other artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and Mark Rothko.

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If you need registration assistance or would like to enroll after online registration has closed, please call 214-768-2273 or contact smuthink@smu.edu.