James Alphonsus Kelly (December 19, 1913 – June 29, 2003)[1][failed verification] was an American abstract expressionist artist whose career spanned nearly seven decades.
Kelly relocated to San Francisco in 1950 to join his friend, painter, John Lynch, enrolling at the California School under the GI Bill.
One of them, "Deep Blue I" from 1952, is considered a masterpiece by Charles Dean, whose Abstract Expressionist collection was acquired by the Library of Congress.
[4] In 1953 Kelly married painter Sonia Gechtoff; the couple became fixtures in the roiling art community of the day.
Kelly switched to acrylic paint in the early 1970s, changing to a simplified geometric style comparable to some of the minimalist works popular at that time.