Born in New York, he grew up as a Jewish boy in an area where anti-Semitism was common. He turned to art at a young age as a way to escape from his peers. He frequently visited the Museum of Modern Art, and he studied at the City College of New York before enlisting in the Army. In 1948, he left the United States and traveled to France, where he studied painting with Fernand Léger and later enrolled at the Sorbonne.