Americans at the École des Beaux-Arts
Part of the younger generation of American artists who went to Paris after the war, Kelly enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts on the GI Bill, and it was in the student restaurant that he met another young American recently out of the military, Jack Youngerman. The two became friends and artistic contemporaries, exhibiting their early work in the same galleries, which included Galerie Maeght and Galerie Arnaud. [i] Years later, in 1968, Youngerman gave an interview to critic and gallery director Colette Roberts wherein he described the atmosphere in Paris for a young American at the École des Beaux-Arts:
“For me it was an unbelievable return into the past. I was amazed that they could preserve a sense of atmosphere down to every detail. The way the professor looked—his dress and all his mannerisms were all very 19th-century mannerisms. And the studio I was in—people told me it had been [Henri de] Toulouse Lautrec’s and that [Vincent] Van Gogh had also been a student there. As though it had been the day before yesterday.” [ii]
Despite the romance of these first impressions, Youngerman makes it clear that day-to-day life as an art student in postwar Paris was not without challenges. Paris was still under strict rationing of food and fuel, and the studio he worked in had only a small stove that would not be lit until December. [iii] In addition to that, many of the French students were skeptical of their American colleagues:
“Most Americans, and myself after I first contacted the Beaux-Arts, just stayed and enrolled to draw the GI Bill benefits but we worked on our own. I don’t know of any Americans who went regularly after the initial contact. The first season there I did because everything was so absolutely new to me. But the studio conditions were uncomfortable and crowded and the French students on the whole weren’t very hospitable. Not about art because they owned art at that time and according to them we were obviously the philistines with our pockets loaded with dollars—I think most Americans felt that.” [iv]
If the young generation of American artists was not always welcomed with open arms at the Beaux-Arts, they were not without supporters in the broader community. Art historian Michael Plante explains the significance of Youngerman and Kelly being included in exhibitions at the prestigious Galerie Maeght, which represented artists including Picasso and Matisse. [v]
“That two young, relatively inexperienced American artists could have received this kind of attention in Paris indicates the openness of the community, especially to those practicing abstraction, and the extent to which dealers and critics were casting about for new talent. The success that Kelly, in particular, achieved depended on his work being read within the context of French contemporary art. Given the growing awareness in Paris of the achievements of the New York school during this period, it is remarkable that critics ignored Kelly’s nationality, allowing his work to slip easily into the discourse of European art.” [vi]
Read about one key trend in the French art world that shaped Kelly’s evolution as an artist.
[i] Jack Youngerman, “Interview: Jack Youngerman Talks with Colette Roberts,” interview by Colette Roberts, Archives of American Art Journal 17, no.4 (1977): 12.
[ii] Youngerman, “Interview: Jack Youngerman Talks …” 11.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Youngerman, “Interview: Jack Youngerman Talks …” 12.
[v] Michael Plante, “’Things to Cover Walls’ Ellsworth Kelly’s Paris Paintings and the Tradition of Mural Decoration,” American Art 9, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 38.
[vi] Plante, “’Things to Cover Walls’…” 38.
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