Art News DFW Archive

  Chapter 5 of painter Chapman Kelley's Memoirs is now available on the Dallas Art History Blog.

Prior to the second exhibition of my work in New York City, Mildred Hawn and I were invited to Braniff Airlines Headquarters to meet over lunch with their executives. During the meal we were offered a Braniff International Airways 707 jet for our exclusive use. We couldn’t refuse the amazing offer; it was to ferry an ever increasing group of Dallasites and folks from other cities that were to attend the formal opening of my exhibit. It would be a sojourn of art immersion on the East Coast with visits to museums, galleries, and tours of private art collections. Our plan was to land in Washington D.C, pick up Nancy Carroll and fly to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was quite a trip heading into a D.C. snowstorm; the pilot announced a change in itinerary, we would instead be landing in New York. On the ground buses were queued waiting for our group. Our caravan eventually made it to Philadelphia where Nancy Carroll, having made the travel adjustment on her own, greeted us....