Kelly, Ellsworth (1923- ), American abstract painter and sculptor, best known for his experiments with color. Many of his paintings of the 1950s consist simply of an abstract, carefully defined patch of bright color on a neutral background.

He also produced some of the earliest shaped canvases, in which a canvas is stretched over a three-dimensional framework to create the desired shape beneath the paint. His best-known later works have been his panel paintings, which consist of several canvases, sometimes as many as 64, joined together; each canvas is painted a different and brilliantly intense color, creating a vibrant, carefully balanced whole.