Adrian Lee Kellard (January 28, 1959 – November 14, 1991) was an American artist known for his
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s and
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
State University of New York at Purchase
The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was fo ...
from 1977 to 1980 under the guidance of Uruguayan artists
Antonio Frasconi
Antonio Frasconi (28 April 1919 in Montevideo, Uruguay – 8 January 2013 in Norwalk, CT, USA) was an Uruguayan - American visual artist, best known for his woodcuts. He was raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, and lived in the United States since ...
and Judith Bernstein. After leaving SUNY Purchase and relocating to New York City, he apprenticed under
Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt
Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt (born 1948) is an American artist who took part in the Stonewall riots.
History
Lanigan-Schmidt's artwork incorporates materials such as tinsel, foil, cellophane, saran wrap and glitter, embracing kitsch and intentionally ...
through the SUNY Empire State Program. Kellard was represented first by Schreiber/Cutler Gallery in SoHo, which became the Susan Schreiber Gallery in 1989, and exhibited in six solo shows more than 25 group exhibitions from 1980 until his death in 1991.
Best known for his woodcuts, his earliest works were prints, but Kellard swiftly chose to make the carved and painted wood blocks finished artwork rather than the prints they could create. Kellard was influenced by an eclectic group of artists including Marsden Hartley, Picasso and
Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
. His work often combined religious imagery, "low" art and homosexual iconography.
Kellard often integrated religion into daily life by creating functional art, such as desks, calendars and screens.
Subsequent to Kellard's diagnosis of
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
in 1987, his work became less overtly religious and angry, and instead he began to use subdued colors and the tone became melancholy and compassionate as seen in The Promise (below right).
Death
On November 14, 1991, Kellard died, aged 32, of complications due to
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
. At the time, he was considered a long time survivor, having lived with the disease for five years. Since his death his work continues to be shown in such exhibitions as "All Faiths Beautiful" and "Race, Class, Gender ≠ Character" at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore Maryland, "Precious" and "From Media to Metaphor" at the Grey Art Gallery and Study Center at New York University. Kellard is represented in the collections of the American Visionary Art Museum in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) at Saint Louis University,
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.New Jersey State Museum in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Grey Art Gallery
The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine art museum, located on historic Washington Square Park, in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, in ...
at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in New York City and the Neuberger Museum of Art in
Purchase, New York
Purchase is a hamlet in the town and village of Harrison, in Westchester County, New York, United States. One myth explains that its name is derived from Harrison's purchase, where John Harrison was to be granted as much land as he could ride in ...
.
References
* Boyce, James Martin, “The Work of Adrian Kellard,” The Catholic Worker, May, 1986
Reviews
*Baran, Jessica, "Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion," Art Papers, January 2012.
*Baran, Jessica, Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion " The Riverfront Times, November 2011
*Glueck, Grace, " The New York Times, April 1985