Alain Naudé

Alain Naudé (1924–2014) was a South African artist who initially pursued a career in music before turning to abstract painting. He became a close friend of Ellsworth Kelly during Kelly’s years in Paris; the two met around 1950 and were part of the same circle of young painters in the postwar Paris art scene.

In 1951, Kelly created a portrait of Naudé. Together, they visited Constantin Brâncuși’s studio in Paris and traveled to Giverny in 1952 to see Claude Monet’s Nymphéas. Naudé also joined Kelly in Meschers, where he helped rearrange squares placed on the grass while Kelly, standing on the balcony, orchestrated different combinations and orientations.