Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly was born in Newburgh, New York, and pursued technical training in the arts at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York in 1941-42. In 1943 he joined the U.S. army and was sent to Europe. His encounters with modern artists and architects profoundly affected his work as an artist. Following discharge from the military he studied at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1946-47, and through the G.I. Bill returned to Paris, where he lived for six years. Kelly's first retrospective exhibition was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in 1973.