JOHN MELVILLE KELLY, A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
John Melville Kelly (1878-1962) was born in San Francisco and moved with his family to Arizona when he was a young boy.
John grew up outside of Phoenix where his father ran a cattle ranch and a small butcher shop. The Kelly’s were recognized by the Arizona Historical Society as “settlers.”
John returned to the Bay Area as a young man to attend art school. He graduated from Mark Hopkins School of Art (San Francisco Art Institute) and also studied and taught at the Berkeley School of Arts and Crafts. After art school in 1905, he was hired as a graphic artist by the San Francisco Examiner where he worked until 1920. He then launched a successful career as an independent advertising artist.
Their apartment in the Nob Hill artists community in San Francisco became a gathering place for artists and actors.
John met Kate Harland in 1903 through mutual friends in the arts community. They married in 1908 and moved to an apartment near Russian Hill in San Francisco.
In 1923, John accepted an advertising assignment to illustrate a new housing development on the island of O’ahu. He travelled there with his artist wife, Kate and their young son, John Jr. They fell in love with Hawai‘i and never left.
Upon arrival to Honolulu in late 1923.
John was an exceptionally talented graphic artist who evolved into a nationally recognized master printmaker. In the late 1920’s John worked as the Art Director for the Honolulu Star Bulletin newspaper and he was creating art in every spare minute. He became known as the "Sunday etcher." John and Kate were beginning to make their mark as local talented artists and had a joint exhibit of their etchings at a well-known Waikiki gallery.
John is renown for a series of seven menu covers commissioned by Matson Cruise Lines. (Click to view the menu cover series.)
John with Old Kalama at his home. He was an expert in la’au lapa’au, (Hawaiian healing herbs).
An early etching by John appeared on the cover of a 1926 local trade magazine.
Kate Kelly was a talented artist. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute , where she won awards and national praise. In addition to her figurines of lei sellers and hula dancers, Kate sculpted the busts of numerous Hawaiians. Several are at the Honolulu Academy of Art. She was also commissioned to produce bronze plaques throughout Honolulu that commemorae historic places and people.
For a variety of reasons, she focused her artistic talent on photography. Her photographs influenced many of John’s etchings of Hawaiian people many of whom were their neighbors. John and Kate lived in a remote area near a Hawaiian fishing village. They established lasting friendships with local fishermen and their families and learned many aspects of the culture.
During the depression, Kate focused her time working to promote John’s art. Thanks to Kate, John was invited to exhibit at a gallery in New York in 1934. His work received rave reviews from art critics.
John helped found the Honolulu Printmaker Association in 1926, one of the oldest in the country. It continues to be housed within the Honolulu Academy of Art (now the Honolulu Museum of Art.). He was also a member of the California Printmakers, the Chicago Printmakers, and Prairie Printmakers Association. All held juried shows where his etchings won numerous awards at printmaking shows throughout the United States.
The Honolulu Academy of Art featured his work in numerous solo and group exhibits throughout the decades, the last being a major exhibit of his work in 2005, which produced the beautiful catalogue of the exhibit, Hawaiian Idyll: John Melville Kelly, by Natasha Roessler.
The Kelly’s held Pa’inas (gatherings) with their friends in the neighborhood. They often danced hula and played music.
John Kelly’s etchings are in numerous museums including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Fogg Museum at Harvard, the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco and in many private collections.
SELECTED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS:
Janet Gaynor
Mrs. David Levy, New York
Shirley Temple
Don Straus, New York
Mrs. Robert P. Scripps
Mrs. J.C. Scully
Jack Kapp, New York
Mark Gerstle, San Francisco
Carrie K. Rothschild
Roosevelt Thompson, New York
Walter Brewster, New York
Gordon Mendelssohn
Jack London, author
Harold Bell Wright, author
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Henry Morgenthau -Secretary of the Treasury, FDR
Fogg Museum, Harvard University
De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Paul Sachs
Lessing J. Rosenwald
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
N.Y. Public Library
Doris Duke Cromwell
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Tibbett
Albert Spaulding
Spencer Tracy
Frances Marion
Important collections in Scotland, France and England