Leon Kelly’s artistic path was a long and winding one, with mastery of Fauvism, geometric abstraction and cubism being just some of the highlights of his journey. It was, however, his venture into surrealism that became Kelly’s signature, with his artwork appearing in countless galleries and exhibitions dedicated to the style. Through December 21, Martha Richardson Fine Art in Boston will present 24 paintings and drawings by the artist that show the evolution of his style from the 1920s to the 1960s.Leon Kelly (1901-1982), Mars Emerging from the Bowels of Satan, 1961. Pencil and charcoal on paper, 51 x 34¾ in., signed, dated and titled.

“Leon Kelly was somebody who was always searching, always looking. From the time he was a child he was copying the Old Masters, and when he was exposed to Earl Horter’s modernist collection…he was exposed to [Pablo] Picasso, [Georges] Braque, even before he went to Paris,” says gallery owner Martha Richardson. She adds, “He never really went truly abstract in the 1920s when he was looking at cubist art, but it’s hard to pinpoint him because he evolved. He was always looking and always thinking. He never stopped copying the Old Masters, even when he was painting in different styles.”Leon Kelly (1901-1982), Bread of Malaga and Fruit, 1956. Oil on canvas, 32¼ x 503/8 in., signed, dated and titled.

By the late 1940s, Kelly, like many other artists of his time, was affected by the turmoil of World War II and turned to surrealism. “He was very successful at it,” Richardson explains. “He exhibited at Julien Levy Gallery [from 1941 until it closed in 1949] alongside all the major artists and was very successful selling to the museums and collectors.” After his second solo show at the gallery in 1944, Alfred Barr, the first director of the Museum of Modern Art, praised Kelly as one of the best American draftsmen. Leon Kelly (1901-1982), The Egyptian with a Candelabrum, 1956. Oil on canvas, 48½ x 30¼ in., signed, dated and titled.

While Kelly had a wide range of styles throughout his career, his drawing ability connected his body of work and made it recognizable as his hand. “There’s a strength of drawing that underlies everything he did,” Richardson says, explaining even in his more abstract pieces the draftsmanship was noticeable.

Take for instance his large-scale pencil and charcoal drawing Mars Emerging from the Bowels of Satan, from 1961, that came about after Alexander Iolas, director of Hugo Gallery, suggested he explore Greek mythology as a subject. With exaggerated musculature and sharp lines, as Richardson describes, “It shows how the man could draw and was looking at the Old Masters’ drawings. It reminds me of William Blake or late work by Michelangelo.” Leon Kelly (1901-1982), Three Glasses, 1935. Oil on panel, 10½ x 14 in., signed, dated and titled.

Other pieces include The Snail, 1941, which is from when he was “working in a more biomorphic style before the late 1940s when he turns almost exclusively to surrealism,” Richardson says. Paintings such as Bread of Malaga and Fruit and The Egyptian with a Candelabrum, both from 1956, are among the most classic and strongest surrealistic examples by the artist in the exhibition. Hanging next to The Snail in the gallery is the 1935 painting Three Glasses, showing how the artist went from a heavy impasto technique to a thinner style that was continued into the 1956 pieces. Leon Kelly at his retrospective at the International Gallery, Baltimore, 1965. The gallery was run by Lotte Drew-Bear, a colleague of Julien Levy’s.

Other works in the show include the cubist pastel The Three Pears; his watercolor Reclining Moor and a Bird; and works such as Man with a Plant, 1951, which shows compositions with a more flattened panel of color. —

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