James Kelly (December 12, 1913 – June 29, 2003) was an American

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

artist whose career spanned nearly seven decades. Primarily a painter, Kelly also created graphic work especially during his early years in San Francisco from 1950 to 1953.

Biography

James Kelly was born in Philadelphia, the son of a shoe manufacturer. He studied at the School of Industrial Arts (now the

University of the Arts (Philadelphia) The University of the Arts (UArts) is a private art university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia. Dating back to the 1870s, it is one of the oldest schools of art or ...

in 1937, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in 1938, at the

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...

in 1941 where he had a scholarshipActon, David, The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints, The Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, 2001, p. 112. and from 1951-54 at the California School of Fine Art (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He interrupted his art career by enlisting in the Air Force in World War II, serving in the Pacific repairing the ultra-secret

Norden bombsight The Norden Mk. XV, known as the Norden M series in U.S. Army service, is a bombsight that was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the United States Navy during World War II, and the United States Air Force in the Korean and t ...

for Boeing B-24 planes for the entirety of the war. Returning to Philadelphia after being discharged, he continued painting while working at his father's shoe factory. Kelly relocated to San Francisco in 1950 to join his friend, painter
John Lynch
enrolling at the California School under the GI Bill. It was there that he produced several significant lithographic works. One of them, "Deep Blue I" from 1952, is considered a masterpiece by Charles Dean, whose Abstract Expressionist collection was acquired by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

. Kelly has been categorized as a "second-generation" abstract expressionist.Landauer, Susan, The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, p.237n11, The University of California Press, 1996, p. 52. In 1953 Kelly married painter

Sonia Gechtoff Sonia Gechtoff (September 25, 1926 – February 1, 2018) was an American abstract expressionist painter. Her primary medium was painting but she also created drawings and prints. Early life and education Sonia Gechtoff was born in Philadelphia t ...

; the couple became fixtures in the roiling art community of the day. He supplemented his artist's income with jobs as a preparator at the San Francisco Museum of Art and as a bartender at The Place.Albright, Thomas, "Art in the San Francisco Bay Area: 1945-1950: An Illustrated History", p. 52, University of California Press, 1985, p. 52. After his mother-in-law Ethel died in 1958, shortly thereafter Kelly and Gechtoff moved to New York. He worked at Grove Press for several years, leaving to concentrate on his painting which continued uninterrupted for the rest of his career.

Work

Kelly's work in Philadelphia was heavily geometric, reflecting the influence of the paintings by Mondrian which he saw at the Barnes Foundation. In California he began working in the gestural, swirling style of Abstract Expressionism that was prevalent in San Francisco, and especially at the California School, at that time. He is sometimes referred to as an "action painter". His paintings, done in oil, were characterized by a heavy impasto. Kelly switched to

acrylic paint Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. De ...

in the early 1970s, changing to a simplified geometric style comparable to some of the minimalist works popular at that time. He returned to

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and va ...

and a gestural execution in the late 1970s. That combination formed the basis of his mature style which continued from the time he returned to it through the rest of his life.

Selected public collections

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

, San Francisco, California *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, New York *

Oakland Museum The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...

, Oakland, California *

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York, New York *

Menil Collection The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of approximately 17,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawing ...

, Houston, Texas

Selected group shows

*King Ubu Gallery, San Francisco, 1953 *San Francisco Museum of Art, 1957, 1958, 1965 *Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, 1958, 1959 *"California Painting and Sculpture: The Modern Era", Smithsonian Institution, 1977 *"The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1996

Selected solo shows

*San Francisco Art Association Gallery, 1956. *Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York, 1968. *Perlow Gallery, New York, 2006. *David Findlay, Jr., Gallery, New York, 2012.

Selected awards

*Ford Foundation Fellowship, Tamarind Lithography, 1963 *National Endowment for the Arts Grant, 1977 *The Peter and Madeleine Martin Foundation for the Creative Arts, San Francisco, 1990 *Elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

, 1995

Notes

External links

Archives of American Art, The James Kelly PapersDavid Findlay, Jr., GallerySan Francisco Museum of Modern Art, painting "Assault on K-2"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, James American abstract artists Abstract expressionist artists Modern painters 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 1913 births 2003 deaths Artists from Philadelphia Artists from California 20th-century American male artists