Ellsworth Kelly (Newburgh, New York, 1923 – Spencertown, New York, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work occupies a central place in postwar abstraction, defined by spare geometric forms, sharply defined edges, and luminous fields of color that stood apart from the gestural intensity of Abstract Expressionism.

Kelly's paternal grandmother introduced him to ornithology as a boy, and bird-watching's patient, close observation shaped his eye before art school did. He studied technical drawing at Pratt Institute, then served in the 603rd Camouflage Engineer Battalion, the "Ghost Army" that used inflatable tanks and deception to mislead German forces, an early education in silhouette and illusion. After the war, he studied in Boston and then, on the G.I. Bill, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he met Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, and Joan Miró and began moving away from representation.