William Kelly (artist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description William Joseph Kelly Template:Post-nominals (1943-2023) was an American artist, art administrator, art teacher, humanist and human-rights advocate who lived, studied and worked in Australia and the United States. He worked across multiple media, including drawing, lithography, painting, wood-engraving, and computer-generated prints.

Education

William (Bill) Kelly was born in Buffalo, New York on 4 May 1943, and was a steelworker before starting his artistic training at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia,<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> then resided part-time in Australia after 1968<ref name=":7" /> on a Fulbright Fellowship, with which he studied at Prahran College of Advanced Education,<ref name=":1">Template:Citation</ref> then at the National Gallery School, which awarded him the first Master’s Diploma, and where in 1970 he lectured in drawing.

Artist and writer

In 1976 Kelly exhibited at the Melbourne University Gallery work which, as Maudie Palmer noted, involved "literally mapping out the figure or figures and their environment in relation to the picture plane", for which he at first used photographs before using live models exclusively.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Many of Kelly's works from the 1980s were aerial views of the subject, so the drawings, paintings or prints could be hung in any orientation and, as an American reviewer noted, such abnormal visual situations evoked a state of helplessness, anxiety and dehumanisation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By 1981 Kelly was represented by Axiom Gallery,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and in 1985 by Stuart Gerstman gallery, also in Melbourne.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":10">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1982 he had started making computer-graphics work like Still Life: Children's Blocks (for T. Salvas)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> using an electronic stylus on a graphics tablet connected to an Apple II computer and one monochrome and one colour monitor, a medium that Kelly compared "to the feel of drawing on a soft-ground plate". Prints were made on a B&W dot matrix or thermal printer.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> From the early 1980s Kelly worked with printmaking technician Larry Rawling in Fitzroy for his fine art prints,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and later with Baldessin Press.<ref name=":11" />

As well as making prints, drawings and paintings, Kelly collaborated on public art and theatre works, and wrote art scholarship,<ref name=":6">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> editing in 1984 the Heritage of Australian art: reflections of the history of Australian painters and paintings.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1983, he was a member of the original steering committee for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Kelly had studios in Melbourne, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Nathalia (his last place of residence).

Humanism

Kelly manifested humanist ideals in his imagery;<ref name=":8">Template:Cite journal</ref> for example working five years on an installation The Peace Project, in reaction to the Hoddle Street massacre which he exhibited in 1993 in both Melbourne and Boston, Massachusetts, and which received the Australian Violence Prevention Award.<ref name=":8" /> His work was exhibited in over 20 countries and, invited to Guernica in the mid-1990s, he visited annually to attend the commemoration of the bombing immortalised by Picasso in his 1937 work, and in 2001, Kelly was commissioned to engage younger people in the commemoration with his The Plaza of Fire and Light a temporary installation using candles surrounding a central bonfire, hailed by Basque artist and historian Alex Carrascosa as re-igniting "the fire of memory."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Kelly's work traveled in group exhibitions throughout Europe and South Africa (representing Australia in the Dialogue Among Civilizations International Print Portfolio organised to coincide with the cultural activities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup).

Kelly edited an anthology, Violence to Nonviolence: Individual Perspectives, Communal Voices, poems, essays and short stories by Australian and international contributors renouncing violence, and which was published in 1994 and reprinted.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His artwork has also appeared in other books, such as Cultures of Crime and Violence: The Australian Experience<ref>Judith Bessant, Kerry Carrington and Sandy Cook [eds.] Cultures of crime and violence : the Australian experience. Bundoora, Vic : La Trobe University Press, 1995.</ref> and in Cook and Bessant's Women's Encounters with Violence.<ref>Sandy Cook, Judith Bessant [editors]. Women's encounters with violence : Australian experiences. Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, c1997.</ref> Kelly's artworks are reproduced in publications worldwide and are represented in over 40 public and corporate collections.

In 2000 Kelly founded the Archive of Humanist Art, with prints and drawings of artists from all over the world that address humanist concerns. The projects have been linked to the Basque Country, Spain; Robben Island, site of the prison that once held Nelson Mandela; the Republic of Georgia and Northern Ireland. Mark Street in 2020 released Can Art Stop a Bullet?, a feature documentary on Kelly's life, work in the peace movement, and travels.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2003 Kelly edited a volume Art and Humanist Ideals: Contemporary Perspectives,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> images in which are drawings, works of poster collectives and photographs by Judith Joy Ross and Nick Ut, and other material from the Archive of Humanist Art. Quintessential humanist texts are included (by Thomas Mann, Paul Tillich, Herbert Read) while contemporary contributors include Suzi Gablik, Gunter Grass, Vaclav Havel, Philippa Hobbs, Douglas Kellner, Lucy R. Lippard, Elizabeth Rankin, Barry Schwartz, and Nigel Spivey.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Reception

Reviewing his 1970 exhibition at Watters Gallery not long after Kelly came to Australia, Ruth Faerber remarked that:

...Template:NbspAmerican, William Kelly, expresses a very real and personally involved bias in his paintings of female nudes that overpowers and decidedly weakens their power as organised works. That he does not project love, but rather hate for his hard faced, hard muscled women makes him no less a sentimental and idealising illustrator. His academic life study nudes stand stiffly posed among the other wooden blocks used in his composition to give an illusion of realistic space. The only figure study that protraysTemplate:Sic any show of human response being the watery blue eyed male nude—and this in a blatantly obvious way!<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Janet McKenzie writing in 1986 summarises the artist's concerns:

Kelly's exploration of the restrictions governing human behaviour is intimate and introspective. A recurring inventory of familiar images and objects brought together in tightly woven surfaces create tensions that parallel the relationships of people with their environment.<ref name=":9">Template:Cite journal</ref>

In his 2006 catalogue essay to Markers Along the Way: An Exhibition of Prints by William Kelly at Shepparton Art Gallery, and as cited by Janet Mckenzie in Studio International,<ref name=":3" /> Godwin Bradbeer wrote a counter to Faerber's earlier impressions:

In some ways Kelly is like a Cézanne or Morandi, preoccupied obsessively with the formalities of his compositions and propositions within the theatre of the picture plane; but viewed retrospectively it is apparent that he has been engaged consciously and purposefully with ideals of conscience and intentions of social betterment that have been rarely, and only marginally, addressed by mainstream contemporary artists and institutions. With or without the figure [he] has always been humanist and philanthropic<ref name=":4" />

Educator

In the early 1970s Kelly returned to New York to exhibit, but came back to Australia in 1975 to take up the position of Dean of the School of Art in the Victorian College of the Arts (1975–1982) following Lenton Parr.<ref name=":9" /><ref>Pascoe, Joseph (Editor). 2000. Creating the Victorian College of the Arts. Palgrave Macmillan Australia</ref> After seven years he stood down in favour of having more time to produce art and to spend with his family.<ref name=":10" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He delivered several guest lectures at Prahran College,<ref name=":1" /> also at Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the New York Studio School and in Europe, South Africa, North America, Eastern Europe, Australasia.

Legacy

Kelly died in Nathalia on 21 July 2023, where he and his partner Veronica Kelly initiated the G.R.A.I.N. Store, a community gallery, workshop and performing space.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was an affiliate artist and supporter of the Baldessin Studio.<ref name=":11">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards

For his role as an international artist, humanist, human rights advocate, and founder of the Archive of Humanist Art, Kelly received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) (for Services to Visual Arts and Urban Design).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was Founding and Honorary Life Member of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Founding Member of the Urban Design Forum, and former member of the Board of the Australian Print Workshop. Kelly was awarded a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship for Fellow travellers: an unfolding story on Australian visual artists practising since World War I and their beliefs about war and peace.

Publications

Selected exhibitions

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1979, 10–22 March: William Kelly Drawings and Paintings. Powell Street Gallery<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1982, 1 April: William Kelly. The Butler Institute of American Art. USA<ref name=":0" />
  • 1984, 12 May–10 June: William Kelly. Swan Hill Regional Gallery<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1984, October: Figures and Faces Drawn from Life, group show. Heide Gallery<ref name=":6" />
  • 1985, April: Gold Coast City Art Prize. Judge Elwyn Lynn recommended purchases of works by Sydney Ball, Kate Briscoe, Rod Ewins, David Fairbairn, Pat Hoffie, George Johnson, William Kelly, Rod McMahon, Ian Smith and Fernando Solano<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1988, 1 August–1 September: Mitchelton Print Exhibition, Interior motives. Multiple venues<ref name=":0" />
  • 1993, April to June: William Kelly Life in Australia: A Contemporary Tragedy. Heide Park and Art Gallery<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1994: Violence to Non-violence: prints from The Peace Project by William Kelly. Imagine The Future's Access Gallery<ref name=":0" />
  • 1999, 9 October–5 November: William Kelly: Unconditional love and goodwill. A decade of art by William Kelly. Bulle Galleries<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 2006, from 9 April: Heart and Mind, Rick Amor, Jenny Watson, Melinda Harper, Jan Senbergs and William Kelly. TarraWarra Museum of Art<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 2006, 20 July–20 August: Markers Along the Way: An Exhibition of Prints by William Kelly. Shepparton Art Gallery<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref>

  • 2009, 9 October–8 November: The Counihan connection: Eight contemporary artists respond to the work of Noel Counihan. Counihan Gallery<ref name=":0" />
  • 2012, 6 June–1 July; William Kelly and Emma de Clario. MARS Melbourne Art Room, Port Melbourne<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 2013, 23 March–13 April: Australian prints from the 1960s and 1970s from the collection of R.E. Nott including commissioned prints from the Print Council of Australia. Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Hampton<ref name=":0" />
  • 2018/19, 16 November–16 February: Impressions. Australian Print Workshop Gallery (APW)<ref name=":0" />
  • 2021, 29 May–19 June: William Kelly: Can art stop a bullet? Works from Guernica and the documentary film. Charles Nodrum Gallery<ref name=":0" />
  • 2022, 9 April–22 May: William Kelly: Towards the Big Picture, in association with the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival 2022<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Collections

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • National Portrait Gallery, Australia<ref name=":2" />
  • Heide Gallery and Museum<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Home for Humanity<ref name=":7">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=William_Kelly_(artist)&oldid=772282"