Postwar Education
Kelly used the generous G.I. Bill to study from 1946 to 1947 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he took advantage of the museum's collections, and then at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There he attended classes infrequently, but immersed himself in the rich artistic resources of the city. He had heard a lecture by Max Beckmann on the French artist Paul Cézanne in 1938 and moved to Paris that year. There he got to know the Americans John Cage and Merce Cunningham, experimenting in music and dance, respectively; the French Surrealist artist Jean Arp and the abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi, whose simplification of natural forms had a lasting effect on him. The experience of visiting artists in their studios — Brancusi, Alberto Magnelli, Francis Picabia, Alberto Giacometti, Georges Vantongerloo, among them — was transformative. While in Paris Kelly established his aesthetic.
Read more about this topic: Ellsworth Kelly
Famous quotes containing the words postwar and/or education:
“Fashions change, and with the new psychoanalytical perspective of the postwar period [WWII], child rearing became enshrined as the special responsibility of mothers ... any shortcoming in adult life was now seen as rooted in the failure of mothering during childhood.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“Infants and young children are not just sitting twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their parents to teach them to read and do math. They are expending a vast amount of time and effort in exploring and understanding their immediate world. Healthy education supports and encourages this spontaneous learning.”
—David Elkind (20th century)