Robert Kelly

In Principio II, Abstract Modernist Aquatint Etching with Arabic Calligraphy

1994

Drawing on his extensive travels, Robert Kelly’s painted collages contain found print and material from around the world. Kelly has included antique botanical drawings, handwritten notes, small sketches, vintage posters, and signs in his work. To create the ground for his paintings, he lays the re-appropriated paper in long strips to form irregular grids, small squares, and triangles. The repeated application often obscures the printed content beyond recognition. His play of edges, angles, and cuts creates a tension and an intuitive logic to the placement of line and form. These explorations, communicated through a skilled technique, refined over a 20-year career, achieve a mature balance that is both formally rigorous and visually exciting. Robert W. Kelly was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and graduated from Harvard University, Cambridge with a MA in 1978. Throughout his career he has received positive reviews in many prestigious publications including Art in America, ARTnews and the Los Angeles Times. He is represented in both private and public collections including the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, IBM, New York and the Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe. Although frequently returning to the Southwest, Kelly resides in New York City.