Ellsworth Kelly Postage Stamps: Celebrating American Hard-Edge Painting

In late May of 2019, the US Postal Service is issuing a group of stamps honoring the work of the late American abstract painter Ellsworth Kelly.

The new stamps, elegantly designed by art director Derry Noyes, feature ten of Kelly’s artworks, including “Yellow White” (1961), “Colors for a Large Wall” (1951), and “Blue Red Rocker” (1963).

The Ellsworth Kelly stamps are being issued as Forever stamps and will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.

Ellsworth Kelly was regarded as one of the world’s most important abstract painters and sculptors, becoming associated with the “hard-edge” or “color field” art movements that rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Kelly’s emphasis on pure form and color, and his impulse to suppress gesture in favor of creating spatial unity, resulted in spectacular works that played a pivotal role in the development of abstract art in America.

Kelly’s prolific and influential career spanned seven decades, and his work hangs in virtually every major museum in the world, including a significant presence at the Museum of Modern Art. From 1984 until his death in 2015, Kelly lived with his husband, photographer Jack Shear, who serves as the director of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation.