Cora Kelley Ward
1920–1989 · USA
About Cora Kelley Ward
Cora Kelley Ward (1920–1989) was an American painter and photographer born in Eunice, Louisiana. Her studies included painting at Newcomb Art School, an M.A. from Hunter College, summer sessions at Black Mountain College in 1949 and 1950, and a Visual Design degree from Chicago’s Institute of Design in 1953. At Black Mountain she studied with Josef Albers, Emerson Woelffer, Theodoros Stamos, and Clement Greenberg.
Ward moved to New York in 1955 and worked within the city’s postwar abstract-art community. Alongside her painting, she photographed artists’ studios, exhibitions, and gatherings. Her paintings use color, layering, and shape as their principal subjects; the public record supports describing her as an abstract painter without assigning a narrower movement label to every phase of her work.
Information
Cora Kelley Ward (1920–1989) was an American painter and photographer born in Eunice, Louisiana. Her studies included painting at Newcomb Art School, an M.A. from Hunter College, summer sessions at Black Mountain College in 1949 and 1950, and a Visual Design degree from Chicago’s Institute of Design in 1953. At Black Mountain she studied with Josef Albers, Emerson Woelffer, Theodoros Stamos, and Clement Greenberg.
Ward moved to New York in 1955 and worked within the city’s postwar abstract-art community. Alongside her painting, she photographed artists’ studios, exhibitions, and gatherings. Her paintings use color, layering, and shape as their principal subjects; the public record supports describing her as an abstract painter without assigning a narrower movement label to every phase of her work.