Prolific American painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly (born 1923), a leader of the hard-edge school, is best known for his huge canvases of geometric forms in bright colors.

Ellsworth Kelly was born on May 31, 1923, in Newburgh, New York. He went to elementary and high schools in New Jersey, attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the U.S. Army Engineer Corps during World War II (1943-1945). Ironically, in terms of his later use of color, he served in the camouflage unit in France.

Art Training and Early Work

Kelly got his initial training at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1946-1948), then went on to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He had his first one-man show in Paris in 1951 and continued to live there until 1954, when he returned to New York City.

In New York, Kelly exhibited at the Betty...