Abstract Painter, Sculptor Ellsworth Kelly Dies at 92

He was best known for his brightly-coloured abstract paintings, which focused on geometric shapes and patterns, and he also worked with sculptures.

Kelly served in the military during World War II, and many have concluded that the war informed the seriousness of Kelly’s work, but his bold abstractions are not dreary things.

The death of the great abstract artist was announced by his art dealer Matthew Marks of the Matthew Marks Gallery. It was all painting nudes, not much color. In a revelatory interview with the Guardian last month, Kelly confessed that he wanted to keep going. “I get an angle, for instance, and it just appears, and I say, ‘Oh my God – that’s it!'” “I’m not really whole any more. But then, the visions were always too much”, Kelly said.

Apart from Jasper Johns, Kelly was the “last hero standing” of American avant-garde, as the New Yorker once described him.

Later he returned to live and study in 1948 with support from the G.I. Bill – legislation which subsidized college educations for thousands of returning American soldiers.

Artist Ellsworth Kelly attends the HRC Marriage for Equality USA celebration at the Calvin Klein Boutique on April 17, 2013 in New York City.