Artist Focus on James Kelly in “Color Field and Abstraction: Brushed, Stained and Sprayed”
- David Eichholtz
- May 25
- 3 min read
James Kelly
Untitled (KELJ13868)
c1980
Oil on paper
20 x 16"
Artist Focus On:
James Kelly
In the Exhibition:
Color Field and Abstraction:
Brushed, Stained and Sprayed Paintings
May 6 through June 14, 2025
An Online Presentation
Contact gallery for prices, images, and information at:
David Richard Gallery, LLC
New York, NY
James Kelly
Untitled (KELJ13876)
1988
Oil on paper
26.5 x 20.75"
James Kelly was comfortable moving between gestural and expressionistic approaches to painting as well as exploring geometry and the use of curvilinear and biomorphic shapes and forms. He never hesitated melding various combinations of approaches or imagery within a single composition. Like many other artists he worked both on large, grand canvases and more intimate scaled works such as the small paintings in this focused presentation, often simultaneously and throughout his long career. Kelly considered his paintings on paper as stand alone, unique paintings and not as studies or a precursor to a canvas. He used the differences in scale of the supports to work between canvas and paper as he explored various ideas, compositions, shapes and forms as well as brush and palette strokes as approaches to express himself and weave imagery and his iconography subtly into his pictures. Frequently, representational and figurative elements are hidden or seem to emerge out of Kelly’s pictures which also provided opportunities for commentary and often a sense of humor in his otherwise non-objective abstractions about life, culture, or the human condition.
James Kelly
Untitled (KELJ13879)
1988
Oil on paper
21 x 26"
James Kelly’s seven-decade career spanned: hard-edge geometric paintings from the 1940’s, California Abstract Expressionism from the 1950’s, Pop from the 1960s, Minimalism from the 1970s, and even his last painting representing the artist’s return to his own personal language of painterly abstraction from the 1980s and onward. James Kelly (1913 – 2003) is an American painter. He was championed by Walter Hopps and included in his first curatorial foray, the seminal Merry Go Round exhibition of 1955. In Los Angeles, Kelly was one of the original artists at The Ferus Galley. Kelly’s work is included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitey Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
James Kelly
Untitled (KELJ13850)
1981
Oil on paper
14 x 17"
James Kelly
Untitled (KELJ13854)
1988
Oil on paper
26 x 20.75"
About James Kelly:
James Kelly (1913 – 2003) is an American abstract painter born in Philadelphia. After enlisting in the second World War, he followed in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and moved to California to study on a GI Bill at the California School of Fine Arts where Clifford Still was a prominent teacher. In San Francisco Kelly’s work flourished, in 1953 he married fellow painter Sonia Getchtoff. Kelly lived in Fillmore in the same building as Jay Defeo, he was at the nexus of artistic activity in Northern California. Kelly was championed by Walter Hopps, who included him in his first exhibition in 1955 known as the Merry Go Round Exhibition, where he installed abstract paintings on a merry go round in Pasadena. Kelly’s paintings were presented alongside works by Mark Rothko and Clifford Still. In Los Angeles, Kelly was one of the original artists at opening of the Ferus Galley.
James Kelly
Untitled (KELJ13873)
1987
Oil on paper
25 x 19"
Art works by James Kelly are included in the permanent collections of: the Museum of Modern Art, Whitey Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum, Norton Simon Museum, La Jolla Museum of Art, Worcester Art Museum, Crocker Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, The Library of Congress, Fogg Museum at Harvard University, New York University, University of California, Los Angeles, and the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection.
James Kelly
Untitled
1989
Oil on paper
23 x 18"
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