1) Oranges; 2) Seaweed (Algue)

The Hunterian houses the most important collection of 20th century prints in the north of the UK, including nearly 400 works of the period by American artists. Kelly is known as a hard-edged American abstractionist artist, but these 2 prints from his Suite of Plant Lithographs of 1964-5 are an indication of the kind of sources in nature that he consults for the abstract forms of his paintings, prints and sculptures. The series is made up of large spare sheets with fruit and plants drawn in outline as individual symbols, and divorced from their natural context. The style of drawing evokes the seductive line of Matisse or the salto mortale of Alexander Calder. Remarkably few of KellyÂ’s prints are in British collections.