Ellsworth Kelly – Sunflower (1957)

Louisiana poster with the work, Sunflower (1957), by the American artist, Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015). The poster was printed in conjunction with Louisiana's 2012 exhibition with the artist, which featured 40 drawings of plants and flowers. For more than a lifetime, Kelly set the agenda for abstract art in the United States.

Ellsworth Kelly—who is otherwise known as one of the USA's leading figures in Hard Edge painting, Color-Field and Pop Art, where he e.g. experimented with canvases in new formats—shows in the work, Sunflower, a completely different, less gestural, side of himself.

A stay in France in the years 1948-1954 laid the foundation for his fascination and close observation of nature, and it was here that Kelly developed his abstract imagery, inspired by artists such as Claude Monet, Jean Arp and Henri Matisse.

Kelly's drawings are done with simplicity and care in love for form, so that the lines in the fine outlines of plants appear intense and vibrant.