Ellsworth Kelly's painting recalls familiar things—figures, organisms, or signs—but ultimately the form is indecipherable. 
Splendid Shapes
Ellsworth Kelly's painting recalls familiar things—figures, organisms, or signs—but ultimately the form is indecipherable.
The curvilinear shape seems both to expand and contract within the white space. The ambiguity of the image invites the viewer's own interpretation.
"All the art since the Renaissance seemed too man-oriented. I liked (the) object quality. An Egyptian pyramid, a Sung vase, the Romanesque church appealed to me. The forms found in the vaulting of a cathedral or even a splater of tar on the road seemed more valid and instructive and a more voluptuous experience than either geometric or action painting."
—Ellsworth Kelly
Source: National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and Boston, New York, Toronto, and London: National Museum of American Art with Bulfinch Press, Little Brown and Company, 1995).
Pictured: Ellsworth Kelly, born 1923, Blue on White, 1961, oil, 85 5/8 x 67 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.