Artwork copyright Lee Kelly. Proposal drawing courtesy of the artist, 1980.

Artwork copyright Lee Kelly. Proposal drawing courtesy of the artist, 1980.

Arch for Zillah, 1981

Lee Kelly
American (born 1932, died 2022)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

About the Artwork

Arch for Zillah is a large-scale steel sculpture by Northwest artist Lee Kelly. The geometric relationships of this simple and elegant structure reference architectural and elemental forms. It is a compelling early example of the artist's body of monumental public sculptures. This image is a proposal drawing by the artist. We do not currently have a digitized image of this artwork.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Washington State Arts Commission.

About the Artist

Kelly was born in Idaho, the grandson of a ranching family. After studying architecture, he graduated in 1959 from the Portland Art Museum School (now known as the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon). He served in the Korean War with the U.S. Air Force from 1951-55. In 1985, he received a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission to study the traditional bronze casting methods of the Newari people in Nepal. He received an Oregon Governor's Arts Award in 1987, and he was the subject of a major career retrospective at the Portland Art Museum in 2010. He was an avid traveler and mountain climber.