His work is in the permanent collections of major museums in the U.S. and around the world and now Ellsworth Kelly’s distinctive style of abstraction has been commemorated with 10 U.S. Postal Service stamps highlighting his work.

 

Characterized by precise shapes rendered in bold, flat colors, Kelly’s art encompasses painting, sculpture and works on paper, drawing on careful observations of light and shadow, negative space, and line and form.

In painting shapes, like a tennis court, a smokestack on a tugboat or the roof of a barn, as flat planes of color, Kelly removed their dimensionality and turned reality into abstraction. He was also one of the first artists to create shaped canvases and to integrate art with modern architecture, taking great care in the decisions he made about the size of a painting, its boundaries, and its placement in relation to walls and floors.

The 20 stamps on the pane feature 10 of Kelly’s artworks, each represented twice in the following order: top row, L to R: “Yellow White” (1961), “Colors for a Large Wall” (1951), “Blue Red Rocker” (1963), “Spectrum I” (1953), South Ferry, (1956); and second row, L to R: “Blue Green” (1962), “Orange Red Relief for Delphine Seyrig” (1990), “Meschers”, (1951), “Red Blue” (1964), and “Gaza” (1956). The selvage features a detail from “Blue Yellow Red III” (1971), as well as Kelly’s name and his birth and death years.

“Ellsworth Kelly honed his artistic voice as a soldier during World War II when he created camouflage patterns and designed posters for the U.S. government,” said USPS Marketing Vice President Steve Monteith, who served as the dedicating official. “Today we celebrate the American master of abstract painting with these dynamic stamps that truly capture the creative talent of Kelly and will be seen by millions as Forever stamps on cards and letters.”

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at https://store.usps.com/store/home or call 800.782.6724 or by mail through USA Philatelic or at Post Office locations nationwide. Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price. Editor’s note: America’s Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.