The Kelton Foundation, also known as the Richard Kelton Foundation, in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, was founded in 1983 as a private

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

by real estate developer Richard Kelton, who died in 2019. Its main activities comprise "

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

, scientific and artistic investigations of humankind and the sea", and it holds a vast collection of artworks, known as the Kelton Foundation Collection, or Kelton Collection. Kelton was particularly interested in maritime art of the

Pacific region The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, China Trade art,

materials, and

Aboriginal Australian art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, rock ...

, and travelled and collected works until around 2007. He mounted his first exhibition in 1980 at the

Pacific Asia Museum USC Pacific Asia Museum is an Asian art museum located at 46 N. Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California, United States. The museum was founded in 1971 by the Pacificulture Foundation, which purchased "The Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Orien ...

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

, believed to be the first Aboriginal Australian art exhibition in the United States. The foundation mounts exhibitions, lends its objects and art to other institutions, and provides assistance to scholars undertaking related research. The Kelton Collection has held works by

contemporary Indigenous Australian art Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded as beginning in 1971 with a painting movement that star ...

ists including

Takariya Napaltjarri Takariya Napaltjarri (also known as Takirriyanya or Doris) (born ) is an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has painted with Papunya Tula artists' cooperative. First exhibited in 1996, her work is held in the collectio ...

, Daisy Leura Nakamarra,

Minnie Pwerle Minnie Pwerle (also Minnie Purla or Minnie Motorcar Apwerl; born between 1910 and 1922 – 18 March 2006) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. She came from Utopia, Northern Territory (''Unupurna'' in local language), a cattle station in the ...

and

Dhuwarrwarr Marika Dhuwarrwarr Marika (born 1946), also known as Banuminy, a female contemporary Aboriginal artist. She is a Yolngu artist and community leader from East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. She belongs to the Dhuwa moiety of the R ...

. Kelton had a particularly close affinity with

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Emily Kam Kngwarray (c.1914-1996) was born in her Ancestral lands, Alhalker located in the Sandover region of the Northern Territory, Australia. One of the world’s most significant contemporary painters to emerge in the twentieth century Kngw ...

and

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1932 – 21 June 2002) was an Australian painter, considered to be one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and ...

, but many many other artists are represented, from

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

, the

Tiwi Islands The Tiwi Islands ( meaning "two islands") are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, to the north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island, Bathurst I ...

, the eastern

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts in t ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, and elsewhere. The foundation also funds the Blue World Web Museum, a "virtual museum" focused on maritime art, whose goal is to mount exhibitions on subjects otherwise unavailable online; to educate; and to stimulate public interest in

maritime museum A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navy, navies and the m ...

s. In December 2020, Kelton's estate sold more than 250 works to Swiss collector Bruno Raschle for around . The Foundation continues its philanthropic connection to Australia, focusing on First Nations health and education projects.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Research programs supported by the Foundation
Charities based in California Foundations based in the United States Australian Aboriginal art Museums in Los Angeles County, California {{US-philanthropy-org-stub