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The Promise, Adrian Kellard
From our friends at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art:
"MOCRA observes the twentieth anniversary of Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis, by exhibiting The Promise, an important work by the late New York artist Adrian Kellard. This work, executed in Kellard's inimitable medium of colorful, large-scale carved wood block panels, draws on the legend of Saint Christopher, a giant man who unwittingly carried the infant Christ across a river. The work, which includes the enigmatic phrase, 'I will never leave you,' seems to assert love, hope, compassion, and loyalty in the face of suffering.
The Promise was included in the 1992-93 international traveling exhibition From Media to Metaphor: Art about AIDS, and in the 1994 exhibition Art’s Lament: Creativity in the Face of Death (organized by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston). Kellard’s own life was cut short by AIDS. He died in 1991 at the age of 32. The Promise will remain on display during regular museum hours through December 13, 2009. Additional reflections on Day With(out) Art, MOCRA's past observances, and The Promise are found on the MOCRA blog. We invite you to share your own memories and thoughts there."
