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FRANCIS R. KELLY – LONDON-BASED AMERICAN ARTIST

FRANCIS R. KELLY (b. 1 May 1927) is an American artist and author who lives in London, England, and works primarily in the printmaking and painting media. He is the author of “Art Restoration” & “The Studio and The Artist”.

LIFE
Francis Kelly was born in 1927 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his early education in Chicago and California and served in the United States Navy from 1944 – 1948 as a signalman. During that time he took part in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at the Bikini Atoll.

Kelly was a finalist for the Prix de Rome in 1950 ([1]'''2, *11) and won the Grand Award for National Veterans Art Exhibition of the American Legion for his painting “Jacqueline” in 1951 (, *11). He was a student at Los Angeles Art Centre School (*16).

From 1951-52, he and his wife, Gail, lived in Paris and attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere  (*5) from which he received his Diploma 1952. The year also marked his first visit to Venice – a city that was to have a long-term influence on his art and life.

Kelly held his first one-man show at Gallerie Huit in Paris in 1952 (*5)

In 1953 he travelled to Honolulu, Hawaii to paint and attend school at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu,(*22). A one- man show at the Gima Galleries (*13, * 18 ). Kelly returned to the mainland and attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where he was graphic laboratory assistant to John Paul Jones. (, *2 , *6, *8, *13). Kelly was awarded a prize and saw his work purchased by the Los Angeles County Museum in 1955 (*11). Later that same year he received a Fulbright Grant scholarship''' (*6 ,*8, * 11, *13 *17 *18). He came to the Graphic Department of the London County Council Central School of Arts & Crafts(now the University of the Arts, London) in London, (*2 ,*6) from where he earned a Diploma in 1959.

In 1957 he exhibited with Wyndham Lewis at the Zwemmer Gallery in London (*20). In 1958 he was awarded the Stacey Grant for painting (*8, *11), a nationwide competition grant created by art patrons John F. and Anna Lee Stacey of Pasadena, California.

In 1959 he held his first one-man show of paintings in England(, , *18) at the Bear Lane Gallery in Oxford. His first London show as at The St. George’s Gallery, London, first 1960 (*7)

His work has been shown at Royal Academy Exhibitions (*9) and he has travelled extensively both painting and drawing in Europe.

In 1966 he was appointed Art Organizer for the US Embassy, London, Festival of Arts & Humanities. The exhibition, entitled Five Americans in Britain, included himself, Brazdys, Cohen, Hubbard and Kitaj. The show ran from April 20 - May 6, 1966. (*8).

During 1976 he would later act in a similar capacity on behalf of Windsor & Newton who sponsored an exhibition of American Artists commemorating the US Bicentennial (*12) alongside those of contemporaries Alfred Cohen, Helene Fesenmaiier, Bob Graham, Susan Hiller Joe Goode John Urban, Ed Rusha, John Hubbard, RB Kitaj, John Paul Jones, Jim Dine and Larry Rivers, among others, and  ‘early transatlantic’ artists including John Singleton Copley, James McNeil Whistler, Benjamin West and Mark Tobey. (*12)

That same year the Englands Gallery in Leeds, England also exhibited Kelly’s and Walter Roberts’ work as part of its American Bi-Centenary Exhibition. It was subtitled: An American in England and an Englishman in America and ran from 4-18 December 1976.

Kelly also appeared in the Winsor & Newton film about alkyd colors entitled “Science in Art” in 1977. A decade earlier Kelly, who had studied painting conservation at the Courtauld Institute in London.(*8 ,*9) In 1967 he was part of a team sent by the Italian Art and Archives Rescue Fund to Florence to restore flood damaged paintings. (*9).

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In 1971, and as a result of both his time at the Courtauld Institute and his restoration work in Florence, his first book “Art Restoration” was published by David & Charles in the UK and in the US by McGraw Hill (ISBN 0070338906). His second book, “The Studio and the Artist” was published in 1975 by David & Charles David & Charles Publishers ISBN: 0715364995.

During the 1980s and 1990s he continued to paint and exhibit in both one-man and mixed shows primarily in London and Manchester.

In 2010 he held a show at Editions Graphics gallery in Mayfair, London entitled Journey: 60 years in Art. (*21)

Kelly maintains a studio in London where he lives with his wife, Martha Gail Kelly (nee Rochlen) where they raised their three sons.

WORKS
During more than 60 years in Britain, Kelly has established a leading reputation as a printmaker and artist with his nudes, landscapes and seascapes leading his body of etchings, aquatints and paintings.

Kelly found affinity with the UK countryside often observing the less-known landmarks as well as the timeless by-ways and rural lands then not encroached by building and industry.

He is also known for his figure work in painting, printmaking and drawing. His etchings and engravings often involved the intaglio process but he also moved into aquatint where he started with a black background and etched through it. as well as many other forms of printmaking.

After the turn of the Millennium a chance observation of weathered advertising poser in an old quarter of Venice inspired another direction in his work. The transient nature of poster images (here today and covered tomorrow) attracted his attention and resulted in his ‘Torn Poster’ series. In the recent decades he has become absorbed by the movement of play of light on water in river and waterways – especially those in UK and in Venice, Italy.

Venice continued to be source of a major themed series completed in 2010 entitled “A New Vision.”. Kelly says his artistic attention is usually focused on the ever-changing reflections of light to be found in and along the city’s canals and an increasing pattern of abstraction is to be evidenced in the compositions.

COLLECTIONS & ACQUISITION
Kelly’s work has been shown at more than 24 museums and in numerous galleries. Acquisitions have been made by many public and private collectors, collections, universities, educational services and other bodies including:


 * Tate Britain
 * Los Angeles County Museum
 * Boston Museum of Fine Arts (*16)
 * New York Public Library  (*10)
 * National Gallery, South Australia
 * International Chemicals Institute
 * IBM Corporation
 * Union Bank of Switzerland
 * Winsor & Newton Limited
 * Glasgow University
 * Merchants National Bank, Indiana
 * Arts Council, Ottawa
 * Royal Collection, King of Sweden  (, *14 *16)
 * Temple Newsam House, Leeds
 * Ashomlean Museum, Oxford (*16)
 * South London Art Gallery
 * Inner London Education Authority
 * Colleges of Oxford & Cambridge
 * British Army of the Rhine
 * National Gallery
 * Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
 * Borough of Stafford Central Library, Museum & Art Gallery (*19)
 * Manchester Educational Committee
 * Ind Coope Limited, Burton on Trent
 * Mr. & Mr.s John Hay Whitney

OTHER ACTIVITIES
Kelly, a member of the renowned and year-round open-air Serpentine Swimming Club in London’s Hyde Park, since the early 1970s, was its first and, to date, only ever American President from 1983 to 1985.