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AFTER DARK/AUTUMN

Thu, Nov 6, 2025 07:00PM EST
  2025-11-06 19:00:00 2025-11-06 19:00:00 America/New_York Vallots Auctioneers Vallots Auctioneers : AFTER DARK/AUTUMN https://auction.vallots.com/auctions/vallot-auctioneers/after-dark-autumn-20522
The artists represented in AFTER DARK/AUTUMN, present the height of male homoerotic art. 20th century trailblazers, defiant queer creatives, and contemporary masters grace our forthcoming auction. Uncover original works from Rex, Michael Kirwan, Cornelius McCarthy, the Hun, Tom Bianchi, MATT, Etienne (Dom Orejudos), and many others displaying the sensuality, craft, historical significance of 20th century queer subcultures.
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Lot 92

Michael Kelley (American, Unk.)

Estimate: $100 - $300
Starting Bid
$50

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,500 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$25,000 $2,500
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
Ink on chain line yellow paper. 9 1/2 x 12 1/2".

Michael Kelly was a gay artist who was prolific in the 1960s and 70s. He commited suicide tragically before a show at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. The events of the evening were reported subsequently in GALO in a 2014 story: "For artists on exhibit like Michael Kelly, expressing a gay perspective came at a tragic price... Featured in one of Leslie-Lohman’s first shows in an early Broome Street gallery in the ’60s, the artist was missing from the gallery’s evening reception. Later it was discovered that he had killed himself the same night. When one of the owners subsequently sent a check to purchase the artist’s works, it was never cashed as Kelly’s mother wanted nothing to do with such “unspeakable acts” portrayed in her son’s art." Gay and Lesbian Art: From the Perishable to the Permanent." GALO (Global Art Laid Out) November 27th, 2014.

Provenance: an American museum.

Condition


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