Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015 pioneered a distinctive style of abstraction based on real elements reduced to their essential forms. The 10 pieces depicted are Yellow White (1961), Colors for a Large Wall (1951), Blue Red Rocker (1963), Spectrum I (1953), South Ferry (1956), Blue Green (1962), Orange Red Relief (for Delphine Seyrig) (1990), Meschers (1951), Red Blue (1964) and Gaza (1956).

Kelly’s art encompasses painting, sculpture, and works on paper, drawing on careful observations of light and shadow, negative space, and line and form. He was 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.

Even late in his career, Kelly continued to refine his vision, constantly returning to his notebooks and earlier works to further develop ideas and explore new directions. Fittingly, his last work, an ambitious free-standing building titled Austin, seamlessly melds color, sculpture and architecture into a single experience. Kelly received the National Medal of Arts in 2013.