Chapman Kelley

09/23/2024

(This post is made by John A. Viramontes) More than 35 years since he conceptualized Chicago Wildflower Works (1987-2004) painter Chapman Kelley's NONCOMMISSIONED public artwork near Buckingham Fountain is at the forefront of the news and still relevant. The international publication The Art Newspaper today has this article by Daniel Grant:

Critics say that a stalemate over the fate of a piece of Land art in Iowa demonstrates that the terms of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 are far too narrow

02/06/2024

(This post is by John A. Viramontes)
I have fond memories of meeting Willie Wayne Young when I visited his home on Chattanooga Place in Dallas, TX in the mid-2000s; his art teacher and former employer Chapman Kelley asked me to drive him there for an hour-long art business meeting with Young. Willie worked in the framing department of Atelier Chapman Kelley and was under the tutelage of Kelley in the late 1950s and beyond.

View Willie Young's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

09/18/2023

(post is by John A. Viramontes) Self portrait by Chapman Kelley 20" x 24" oil on canvas, signed and dated front 12.4.1981

08/09/2023

(This post is by John A. Viramontes) Many years ago I was lucky to chauffeur painter Chapman Kelley to the Texas home of his longtime colleague and friend Alton; we visited for a short while before driving back to Chicago. I soon realized I had made a mistake by not photographing a striking sculpture for my personal archive. It's of a reclining woman during the final days of her life, a mother. The sculpture has played over and over in my mind since then. Artist info to follow. Cellphone image John A. Viramontes, August 7, 2023

06/23/2023

The world’s most prolific art collector, Joseph Hirshhorn, had recently acquired a diptych painted by Chapman Kelley. Hirshhorn immediately turned around and gifted the Johnsons with the same artwork. The Johnsons wasted no time inviting Kelley to hang the work at their home, the LBJ Ranch. Kelley spent the entire day alone with Lady Bird and the president. 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of that remarkable encounter. Kelley was so moved by the experience he created a leatherbound book of full-color photographs, “A Visit to LBJ Country, January 20, 1973” to commemorate the event. 36 hours after Kelley’s social visit, the final one for Lyndon B. Johnson, the president passed.

08/17/2022

Polio is in the current news in New York, having been detected in its sewage. Back in the day, Chapman Kelley was introduced to polio vaccine pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk, by Salk's new wife, Françoise Gilot, she being the mother of Picasso's two children.

06/30/2022

Painter Chapman Kelley, resident and native son to San Antonio, Texas, was invited to exhibit 19 pieces of his artwork the week of November 6th 1957 at the Mary Nye Gallery in Dallas, Texas. Kelley had recently earned two scholarships, in back-to-back years, via the William Emlen Cresson European Traveling Scholarship while studying at the first and oldest art school in the United States, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine the Arts. Before Kelley had even boarded the plane for France, Italy, and Spain during the summer of 1957, the Mary Nye Gallery issued a letter informing the public that both first and second purchase choices of his yet-to-be created work had already been requested! And at the time Kelley was just 25 years old. Image is Jerry Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.

06/15/2020

https://conta.cc/2XIOiPD

10/21/2019

https://conta.cc/2P0c9pX

09/11/2019

The June 18, 2019 Congressional Record has an entry describing the "excellent leadership" at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts for their multi-year loan of over 30 pieces of art to the personal residence of the new European Union Ambassador to the United States, Stavros Lambrinidis...including a 1959 Kelley work...

07/10/2019

https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/2019/06/22/west-texas-art-san-angelo-un-ambassadors-washington-dc-home/1524334001/

Union Ambassador to the United States Stavros Lambrinidis welcomed San Angelo dignitaries into his Washington D.C. home during a unique art reception.

04/13/2019

https://conta.cc/2KBVh8i