Kelly used the G.I. Bill to study from 1946-47 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. While in Paris Kelly established his aesthetic.[3] There in the City of Lights he attended classes infrequently, but, immersed himself in the rich artistic resources of the French Capitol.[4] He had heard a lecture by Max Beckmann on the French artist Paul Cézanne in 1948 and moved to Paris that year.[5] There he got to know fellow Americans John Cage and Merce Cunningham, experimenting in music and dance, respectively; the French Surrealist artist Jean Arp and the abstract sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, whose simplification of natural forms had a lasting effect on him.[6]
The experience of visiting artists in their studios — such as Alberto Magnelli, Francis Picabia, Alberto Giacometti, Georges Vantongerloo — was transformative