Claude Kelly was one of the celebrated Carrolup children artists who created paintings and drawings at the Carrolup Native Settlement in southwest Western Australia in the late 1940s. Carrolup was one of the many institutions across Australia to which Aboriginal children who’d been removed from their families were taken during the assimilation era. Between 1946 and 1951 the school principal at Carrolup was Noel White, and he and his wife Lily White (distinguished by their compassionate and progressive approach to their role) encouraging the children to draw and paint their surroundings, facilitating a painting movement that saw Carrolup paintings widely exhibited and sold in Australia and overseas in the 1940s and 1950s. There are a number of works by Kelly, created between 1948 and 1949, in the collection of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia. Some of these were included in the 'Nyungar Landscapes’ exhibition at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (1992) and the 'Koorah Coolingah (Children Long Ago)’ exhibition which took place at the Katanning Arts Centre and the Western Australian Museum in Perth during the 2006 Perth International Arts Festival. Kelly’s work was also included in 'The Legacy of Koorah Coolingah (The Legend of Children Long Ago)’ at the Brisbane Powerhouse (2009), which juxtaposed works by the Carrolup children artists with currently practicing artists associated with the Carrolup Legacy. Kelly is represented in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Shire of Katanning.

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Writers:

Fisher, Laura

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011