Biography of Ellsworth Kelly, Minimalist Artist

Biography of Ellsworth Kelly, Minimalist Artist Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923–December 27, 2015) was an American artist who played a key role in the development of minimalist art in the U.S. He was also associated with hard-edge painting and Color Field painting. Kelly is best-known for his single color shaped canvases that went beyond the typical square or rectangular shapes. He also produced sculpture and prints throughout his career. Fast Facts: Ellsworth Kelly Occupation: ArtistBorn: May 31, 1923 in Newburgh, New YorkDied: December 27, 2015 in Spencertown, New YorkEducation: Pratt Institute, School of the Museum of Fine ArtsSelected Works: Red Blue Green (1963), White Curve (2009), Austin (2015)Notable Quote: The negative is just as important as the positive. Early Life and Education Born in Newburgh, New York, Ellsworth Kelly was the second of three sons of insurance company executive Allan Howe Kelly and former schoolteacher Florence Githens Kelly. He grew up in the small town of Oradell, New Jersey. Kellys paternal grandmother introduced him to birding when he was eight or nine years old. The work of legendary ornithologist John James Audubon would influence Kelly throughout his career. Ellsworth Kelly attended public schools, where he excelled in his art classes. His parents were reluctant to encourage Kellys artistic inclinations, but a teacher supported his interest. Kelly enrolled in the Pratt Institutes arts programs in 1941. He studied there until his induction into the U.S. Army on January 1, 1943. Military Service and Early Art Career During World War II, Ellsworth Kelly served with other artists and designers in a unit called The Ghost Army. They created inflatable tanks, sound trucks, and fake radio transmissions to deceive the enemy on the battlefield. Kelly served with the unit in the European Theater of the war. Exposure to camouflage in the war influenced Kellys developing aesthetic. He was interested in the use of form and shadow and the ability of camouflage to hide items in plain sight. After the end of World War II, Kelly used funds from the G.I. Bill to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, he attended the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. There, he met other Americans such as avant-garde composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. He also associated with French Surrealist artist Jean Arp and Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. The latters use of simplified forms had a profound effect on Kellys developing style. Ellsworth Kelly said that a key development of his painting style while in Paris was figuring out what he didnt want in a painting: [I] just kept throwing things out, like marks, lines and the painted edge. His personal discovery of Claude Monets brightly-colored late-career works in 1952 inspired Kelly to explore even more freedom in his own painting. Kelly made strong connections with fellow artists in Paris, but his work was not selling when he left to return to the U.S. in 1954 and settled in Manhattan. At first, Americans seemed somewhat mystified by Kellys minimalist canvases of bright colors and geometric shapes. According to Kelly, the French told him he was too American, and the Americans said he was too French. Kellys first solo show took place at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York in 1956. In 1959, the Museum of Modern Art included Kelly in their landmark exhibition 16 Americans alongside Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, and Robert Rauschenberg among others. His reputation grew quickly. Painting Style and Minimalism Unlike many of his contemporaries, Ellsworth Kelly showed no interest in expressing emotion, creating concepts, or telling a story with his art. Instead, he was interested in what happened in the act of viewing. He was curious about the space between the painting and the person looking at it. He eventually abandoned the constraints of typical square or rectangular canvases in the 1960s. Instead, he used a variety of shapes. Kelly called them shaped canvases. Because he used only isolated bright colors and simple shapes, his work was considered part of Minimalism. In 1970, Ellsworth Kelly moved out of Manhattan. He wanted to escape a busy social life that was eating into his time producing art. He built a 20,000 square foot compound three hours north in Spencertown, New York. Architect Richard Gluckman designed the building. It included a studio, office, library, and archive. Kelly lived and worked there until his death in 2015. During the 1970s, Kelly began incorporating more curves in his work and the shapes of his canvases. By the early 1970s, Ellsworth Kelly was prominent enough in American art to be the subject of major retrospectives. The Museum of Modern Art hosted its first Kelly retrospective in 1973. Ellsworth Kelly Recent Paintings and Sculpture followed in 1979. Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective traveled in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany in 1996. Kelly also worked on sculpture in steel, aluminum, and bronze. His sculptural pieces are as minimal as his paintings. They are mostly concerned with simplicity in form. The sculptures are designed to be seen quickly, sometimes in a single glance. Ellsworth Kellys final art project was a 2,700-square-foot building influenced by Romanesque churches that he never saw in its completed form. Named Austin, it stands in Austin, Texas as part of the Blanton Museums permanent collection and opened to the public in February 2018. Facades of the building include blown-glass windows in simple colors that reflect Kellys life work. Personal Life Ellsworth Kelly was known as a shy man in his personal life. He had a stutter as a child and became a self-described loner. For the last 28 years of his life, Kelly lived with his partner, photographer Jack Shear. Shear became director of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Legacy and Influence In 1957, Ellsworth Kelly received his first public commission to create a 65-foot-long sculpture titled Sculpture for a Large Wall for the Transportation Building at Penn Center in Philadelphia. It was his largest work yet. That piece was eventually dismantled, but a wide range of public sculpture still exists as part of Kellys legacy. Some of his best-known public artworks include: Curve XXII (I Will) (1981), Lincoln Park in ChicagoBlue Black (2001), Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. LouisWhite Curve (2009), Art Institute of Chicago Kellys work is seen as a forerunner of artists like Dan Flavin and Richard Serra. Their pieces are also focused on the experience of viewing art instead of trying to convey a specific concept. Source Paik, Tricia. Ellsworth Kelly. Phaidon Press, 2015.

Mesohippus - Facts and Figures

Mesohippus - Facts and Figures Name: Mesohippus (Greek for middle horse); pronounced MAY-so-HIP-us Habitat: Woodlands of North America Historical Epoch: Late Eocene-Middle Oligocene (40-30 million years ago) Size and Weight: About four feet long and 75 pounds Diet: Twigs and fruit Distinguishing Characteristics: Small size; three-toed front feet; large brain relative to its size    About Mesohippus You can think of Mesohippus as Hyracotherium (the ancestral horse previously known as Eohippus) advanced a few million years: this prehistoric horse represented an intermediate stage between the smallish hooved mammals of the early Eocene epoch, about 50 million years ago, and the large plains grazers (like Hipparion and Hippidion) that dominated the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs over 45 million years later. This horse is known by no less than twelve separate species, ranging from M. bairdi to M. westoni, which roamed the expanse of North America from the late Eocene to the middle Oligocene epochs. About the size of a deer, Mesohippus was distinguished by its three-toed front feet (earlier horses sported four toes on their front limbs) and the wide-set eyes set high atop its long, horse-like skull. Mesohippus was also equipped with slightly longer legs than its predecessors, and was endowed with what, for its time, was a relatively large brain, about the same size, proportionate to its bulk, as that of modern horses. Unlike later horses, however, Mesohippus fed not on grass, but on twigs and fruit, as can be inferred by the shape and arrangement of its teeth.

Gun Control community and police safety vs right to bear arms Research Paper

Gun Control community and police safety vs right to bear arms - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that judging by the current statistics, the United States has the highest level of gun-related violence, which is not only greater than everywhere in Western Europe, but around the World. Police officers receive reports of mass shootings virtually every day, with the latest one being the San Bernardino shooting in California, which left 14 people dead and 21 wounded. According to Shootingtracker.com, the San Bernardino shooting is undeniably the deadliest since the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, which took place in December 2012, and left 20 children and 6 adults dead. The website, which defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot at the same time, equally reports that the United States has witnessed 1052 mass shootings over a span of 1066 days. The situation in the United States is a sharp contrast to that in Scotland for example, which has a population of 5.3 million people but has made great strides in managing gun-related violence. The state of affairs in Scotland is said to have changed after the Dunblane Primary School shooting in March 1996, which left 16 children and 1 teacher dead. The public outcry that resulted from the 1996 incident prompted the British government to act with speed, and ban the private ownership of automatic weapons and handguns within their mainland. The effected changes similarly gave the authorities more control over the licensing of weapons.

House Parties with Under Age Drinking Research Paper

House Parties with Under Age Drinking - Research Paper Example Decreasing the prevalence of this would involve tightening current laws and policies as well as increasing monitoring, so that it is known more often when underage youth are being provided with alcohol. Introduction One important issue affecting the youth of today is drinking behavior, in particular underage drinking behavior. Currently the legal age for drinking in the United States is 21 years of age. However, there are a wide range of contexts in which individuals below the drinking age obtain alcohol, often through adults or individuals that are above the legal drinking age. There is a large amount of concern that the amount of underage youths that are drinking, and the amount of alcohol that they are consuming. On average young people appear to be drinking alcohol more frequently and are drinking more each time they do drink . One circumstance that this occurs in are house parties. The term house party covers a large range of situations, but can generally be considered a social gathering that occurs at someone’s place of residence. This can range from a couple of friends, through to more than 100 people. Often house parties are held by and for young adults, with college and high school students attending. The Prevalence of Underage Drinking Underage drinking is extremely prevalent even by the time that children reach the senior years of high school. Around 30% of seniors at high school report heavy drinking at least once per month, and 40% of full-time college students aged between 18 and 22 report heavy drinking. These statistics are alarming, as almost all of those children and young adults are below the minimum age for drinking. In addition, there are many harmful consequences of drinking and these are often amplified in younger drinkers, in part due to lower tolerances of alcohol and also less life experience . In 1984 an act was passed that encouraged each state to set their minimum drinking age to 21. By 1988, the minimum drinking age for all states was 21 . Alcohol is a significant factor in the deaths and unintentional injuries for many youth aged 15- to 20-, with the rate of drunk drivers under 21 twice that of adult drivers. As well as injury, there are many other costs of underage drinking, including problems at school, pregnancies and sexual diseases as a consequence of unsafe sexual practices and severe alcohol addiction . Why is Underage Drinking so Prevalent? Alcohol is widely available and easily obtainable for adults over the age of 21 through a number of different types of locations, including many that allow off premises consumption. There are little limitations in the quantity of alcohol that an adult can by, and no way of knowing what an adult intends to do with the alcohol that they buy. Despite the age restriction, alcohol is easy to obtain for those underage. Between 30 and 70 percent of outlets may sell to underage buyers, depending on the particular outlet and the location. Another common source of al cohol for underage drinkers is at parties where alcohol has been provided and the youths at the party have been left unsupervised . Drinking of alcohol is heavily advertised as beneficial, a method of socialization and of relaxing, and these advertisements affect youth as much or more than they do their target audience. In addition to this the enforcement of the minimum

Wilfred Owens Poetry Vs Platoon :: essays research papers

1. Within each text the setting plays an important part. How do both Stone and Owen convey the setting and the conditions the men faced? (Don’t forget you must refer to specific lines and poetic/film, techniques) Naturally it is a lot easier to convey the desired setting of a scene if the medium used involved visual concepts. However, Wilfred Owens poetry manages to give the reader an extremely vivid idea of what the conditions were like for the people whom he describes. Like Oliver Stone, in his movie Platoon, Owen uses some very simple concepts to set the scene in his writing, such as mud, or loud noises, which convey not only the setting, but also the mood that goes with it. For example, in the poem Duce et Decorum Est, in the lines â€Å"Gas! Gas! Quick. Boys! –An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets on just in time† This excerpt not only give the reader a clear idea of what is physically happening in the trenches, but the language used and in particular, the incoherent shouting in the first line also implies the confusion of the situation, as if the author can recall no more than a blur of it. Oliver Stone also uses techniques to imply confusion, such as when the platoon are attacked in the jungle scenes; the camera frequently changes perspective (from long-shots to close-ups) as well as focus, and is often jolting suddenly as if it is from the perspective of one of the soldiers running. The movie Platoon also uses light against darkness to represent good and evil, or even at time to imply the emotion and fear which the characters are feeling. For example, the eerie, blue light, which is noticeable in the jungle scene, gives the scene an air of unfamiliarity, which is also reflected on the emotions of the characters’ faces. Despite these good points, it is clear that Platoon does not have the realistic scenarios that Wilfred Owen brings forth in his poetry. This is probably because Owen’s work was written while he was actually fighting in the First World War, and his poems often seem as if they are recollections of the actual events. Oliver Stone on the other hand has served very little time, if any at all, and the movie is no more than a chimerical expression of his feelings toward the American attitude of the Vietnam War. One parallel between the graphic scenes of Platoon and the poetic description shown in Wilfred Owens work can be seen in the constant battle against the natural elements that is shown in both examples. Wilfred Owens Poetry Vs Platoon :: essays research papers 1. Within each text the setting plays an important part. How do both Stone and Owen convey the setting and the conditions the men faced? (Don’t forget you must refer to specific lines and poetic/film, techniques) Naturally it is a lot easier to convey the desired setting of a scene if the medium used involved visual concepts. However, Wilfred Owens poetry manages to give the reader an extremely vivid idea of what the conditions were like for the people whom he describes. Like Oliver Stone, in his movie Platoon, Owen uses some very simple concepts to set the scene in his writing, such as mud, or loud noises, which convey not only the setting, but also the mood that goes with it. For example, in the poem Duce et Decorum Est, in the lines â€Å"Gas! Gas! Quick. Boys! –An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets on just in time† This excerpt not only give the reader a clear idea of what is physically happening in the trenches, but the language used and in particular, the incoherent shouting in the first line also implies the confusion of the situation, as if the author can recall no more than a blur of it. Oliver Stone also uses techniques to imply confusion, such as when the platoon are attacked in the jungle scenes; the camera frequently changes perspective (from long-shots to close-ups) as well as focus, and is often jolting suddenly as if it is from the perspective of one of the soldiers running. The movie Platoon also uses light against darkness to represent good and evil, or even at time to imply the emotion and fear which the characters are feeling. For example, the eerie, blue light, which is noticeable in the jungle scene, gives the scene an air of unfamiliarity, which is also reflected on the emotions of the characters’ faces. Despite these good points, it is clear that Platoon does not have the realistic scenarios that Wilfred Owen brings forth in his poetry. This is probably because Owen’s work was written while he was actually fighting in the First World War, and his poems often seem as if they are recollections of the actual events. Oliver Stone on the other hand has served very little time, if any at all, and the movie is no more than a chimerical expression of his feelings toward the American attitude of the Vietnam War. One parallel between the graphic scenes of Platoon and the poetic description shown in Wilfred Owens work can be seen in the constant battle against the natural elements that is shown in both examples.

How Does Iago Inspire Fear and a Looming Sense of Tragedy?

Iago, in his soliloquies, informs the audience of his plans to deceive Othello and bring about his fall from grace. It is his use of language, rhythm, length and delivery that cause the greatest impact, instilling fear into the audience and creating a sense of tragic inevitability as Iago’s plans will come to fruition, with no one to stop them. The dangerous thing about Iago is that he not only brings down Othello, but he also wrecks anyone else that he can along the way.A soliloquy is when a character is alone on stage and projects their true inner thoughts or feelings to the audience. This is the case for Iago, as he shows his true state of mind in his soliloquies. It is what he says in them, which create such an overwhelming amount of fear for the reader, with his plans to corrupt and deceive various characters along the way in order to abolish Othello. Many critics also agree that Iago is a character full of pure evil. Shakespearean critic A. C.Bradley said that â€Å"evi l has nowhere else been portrayed with such mastery as in the evil character of Iago. † in â€Å"Shakespearean Tragedy† (p. 169). Iago’s soliloquies are where he reveals how dishonest he is, creating anxiety in the audience, as we are unable to interrupt what Iago plans to do. Moreover, Iago tells the audience of his scheme which involves arranging for Cassio to lose his position as lieutenant, and gradually insinuate to Othello that Desdemona is unfaithful with Cassio.The horrifying thing about Iago is that he is able to talk of carrying out such horrifying events such as sabotaging Othello and Desdemona’s marriage, and the fact that he relishes the moment when he formulates his plan, truly shows his malicious nature, making the audience fear him. We see the lengths Iago will go to destroy Othello. He knows that Othello is a man â€Å"That thinks men honest that but seem to be so†, so he is willing to abuse Othello’s trust and poison him unt il he loses his mind. There are many references in the play to sacred teachings; mainly on heaven and hell. In Act III, Iago is scheming about Othello’s downfall.When he says â€Å"How? How? let’s see:†, the atmosphere is extremely tense as the caesural pause shows that he is planning, and the audience is terrified as Iago is so into his plan that we know he will come up with something immensely evil. His capacity for cruelty seems limitless, and that is what makes him so frightening. Rebecca Warren has said from the York Advanced Notes of Othello that â€Å"his pride is laced with sly vindictiveness† (p. 60). His qualities seem to be like that of the devil. Very suddenly, he says â€Å"I have’t, it is engendered! Hell and night/Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light. The juxtaposition between â€Å"Hell and night† and world’s light† shows Iago as being linked with hell and Othello as being linked with heav en, whilst the rhyming couplet and the reference to the â€Å"monstrous birth† draws attention to the unnaturalness and evilness of his plans, which instils fear in the audience and a looming sense of tragedy, as now Iago will bring his plan into action. The broken up iambic pentameter shows how much he relishes his moment. In Act V, Iago tries to show the justification of his actions. He believes that because Othello slept with his wife, he is acceptable in cuckolding Othello.This is shown when he says â€Å"Till I am evened with him, wife for wife†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Here, he is showing the audience that he is so immoral, that he is willing to go as far as corrupting biblical terms, with his play on the teaching â€Å"an eye for an eye†, which he exchanges with â€Å"wife for a wife†¦ †, the ellipsis showing the pace of his speech as he gets worked up into a frenzy. The ellipsis also shows that he is in the thinking process, which also inspires a sense of trag edy as he will come up with more evil plans. In Act VI, Iago has been given the handkerchief and talks of the â€Å"holy writ† and of wanting Othello to â€Å"Burn like the mines of sulphur†.This line is emphatically stressed to show how badly he wants to punish Othello and this will inevitably end in tragedy, and so makes the audience nervous. Another way that he creates fear in the audience is by mocking the audience. In Act V, Iago says of Cassio: â€Å"And what’s he then that says I play the villain? /When this advice is free I give and honest†. Iago enjoys ruining people's lives. He does it with a sense of craftsmanship, as he appreciates the cleverness of a particular step in his scheme as much as its final result: incredible suffering for the people he has chosen.Here he is mocking the audience, by saying that he told Cassio the truth. He is reveling in his Machiavellian role. In Act III, just after he persuades Roderigo to sleep with Desdemona in order to do himself â€Å"a pleasure, (Iago) a sport†, Iago immediately reveals that he is only hanging around â€Å"with such a snipe/But for (his) own sport and profit†, the sibilance here drawing attention to the evil, mocking tone that Iago uses. The prominent Shakespeare scholar Harold Goddard called Iago a man always at war, â€Å"a moral pyromaniac,† in his book ‘The Meaning of Shakespeare’, which shows that Iago almost has a disorder.Using the length of his soliloquies, Iago manages to keep the audience captivated as to his next vindictive plan. The length of his soliloquies could perhaps shows his growing sense of influence and authority within the play, which creates a sense of looming tragedy for the audience as only they know of Iago’s cruel plans. Language can change the mood instantly, and Iago has a very violent tone. This is shown in Act V1 when he uses ‘s’ sibilance throughout the soliloquy, and the repetition of â€Å"poison† shows that he enjoys corrupting Othello, which scares the audience as this is very immoral.In Act V, when he says â€Å"Divinity of hell†, the audience is terrified, as it is unclear whether he is calling the devil or possible saying that he is the devil, as he says that when devils are plotting, they cover up their evil side â€Å"with heavenly shows/As (he) do(es) now. † What is dangerous about Iago is that he doesn’t have a real motive. His motivations are never very clearly expressed and seem to be just an obsessive delight in manipulation and destruction. This view is shared by the critic E. H. Seymour in his remarks†¦ upon the Plays of Shakespeare, where he says â€Å"there are no sufficient motives apparent for this excess of malignity†.However, in Act II, Iago claims that his reason for this cruelness towards Othello is because Othello â€Å"Hath leapt into (Iago’s) seat. † and this very thought â€Å"Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw (his) inwards† This is only a rumour, but Iago treats it as if it is completely true. His lack of motivation, or his inability or unwillingness to express his true motivation, makes his actions all the more terrifying. He is willing to take revenge on anyone—Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo, even Emilia and what alarms the audience more is that he enjoys the pain and damage he causes. He also seems to have a very misogynistic view on women.Rebecca Warren says from the York Advanced Notes on Othello (p. 60) that â€Å"he never says explicitly that he hates women or foreigners,† but seems to have an â€Å"exceedingly low opinion of them, which comes across in many of his speeches†, showing that he is racist and also quite sexist. This is shown in Act III, when he says to Roderigo that Othello is an â€Å"erring Barbarian† and Desdemona, â€Å"a super-subtle Venetian. He is very stereotypical and believes Othello to be a savage because he is black and Desdemona promiscuous because Venice had a â€Å"reputation for sexual licentiousness†, in the Arden Shakespeare version of Othello (p. 1). This makes the audience fear Iago as he is willing to base his plans on these stereotypical views. To conclude, I believe that, in his soliloquies, Iago inspires fear in the audience by the use of violent, negative language such as â€Å"poison†, â€Å"blood†, and â€Å"jealousy†. As well as this, it is the fact that he seems to have no real motive for his actions that truly scares the audience, as he goes to such extreme lengths to ruin Othello, just because of a rumour that the audience has only heard of from Iago himself, or just because Othello appointed Cassio as his lieutenant, instead of him.What additionally adds fear in the audience is his use of vivid imagery of hell and the devil, and also evidence for him actually calling himself the devil. The content of Iago’s s oliloquies is what inspires a looming sense of tragedy as only the audience knows what he is plotting and so nothing can be done to stop Iago from implementing his cruel plan.

Creative Ideas for Extracurricular Activities

Rubiks Cube may not seem to have much to do with college admissions, but anything an applicant is passionate about can be transformed into a winning piece of a college application. This article explores how Rubiks Cube and other quirky interests can become meaningful extracurricular activities. Avoiding Burn-Out in High School A high school student wrote in the college admissions forum that he was worried about his burn-out and his lack of extracurricular activities. He also mentioned his passion for Rubiks Cube. This combination of passion and burn-out gets to the heart of a good college application strategy. Far too many students join clubs, compete in sports, and play instruments because they feel these activities are essential for getting into college, not because they actually have any passion for these extracurriculars. When you spend a lot of time doing something you dont love, you will burn out. What Can Count as an Extracurricular Activity? College applicants should think broadly about what can be defined as an extracurricular activity (see What Counts as an Extracurricular Activity?). Not everyone can be or wants to be class president, drum major, or the lead in the school play. And the truth is, unusual extracurricular activities are going to make your application stand out more than membership in Chess Club and Debate Team (mind you, Chess Club and Debate Team are both fine extracurriculars). So, getting back to the Rubiks Cube -- can ones love of the Cube be classified as an extracurricular? If handled correctly, yes. No college will be impressed by the applicant who spends four hours a day sitting alone in a room playing with a puzzle, but consider something like this example: if youre really into cubing and decided to make a cube club at your school, finding others who were interested and creating the club, it could look good on an application because it shows that youre taking charge and starting something that will be beneficial for others. Heres a Rubiks Cube lover who turned that passion into a school club. The applicant demonstrates leadership and organization skills by taking the initiative to transform his passion into something more than a solitary hobby. And note that leadership is key when it comes to the best extracurricular activities. An impressive extracurricular isnt defined by the activity itself, but by what the student accomplishes with the activity. The student could take this club one step further to accomplish the dual goals of getting into college and helping others -- how about using the club to fundraise for a charity? Create a Rubiks Cube competition; collect donations; get sponsors -- use the club to raise money and awareness for a worthy cause. The main point here isnt just about Rubiks Cube, but about extracurriculars. The best college applicants remain true to their interests and passions. Think broadly and creatively about extracurriculars to figure out how to transform your passions into something meaningful that will be a pleasure for you, a benefit to others, and an impressive part on your college application.