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Leon Nicholas Kalas, Curator- Artist
-- By Penelope Karageorge, Journalist/ Art critic
Artist Leon Nicholas Kalas cherishes a unique
creative goal. "In my lifetime, I want to be able to create
works in every art movement," Kalas exults. "Each movement
has its own style, and beauty and technique. When I look at Mondrian's
painting and I see black on black, I realize he tried to do something
with those shades of black. What is it that he is trying to accomplish?
I want to do the same thing, and experience the same feeling. As
a painter, I have never wanted to develop a 'style' or keep painting
just a particular object or theme all the time. Instead, I am interested
in experimenting with different movements. Every single art movement
has its own personality, beauty and technique, which I find fascinating.
I do a series of paintings in a particular movement, then I move
on to a series of paintings in a different movement."
Initially inspired by the Renaissance, he studied the work of Caravagio,
Rafael and Michelangelo. He then moved on to Allegoricism, with
his favorite painters being Nicholas Poussin and Peter Paul Rubens,
before discovering Emotionalism and the work of Murillo and Zurbaran.
Other movements and artists that have kindled the artist's imagination:
Symbolism and the work of Gustav Klint, Odilon Redon, and Henri
Rousseau; Dadaism, Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst; Abstract Expressionism,
Frank Kelly, Ellsworth Kelly, and William De Kooning; Minimalism,
Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, and Eva Hesse.
Kalas's prodigious artistic experimentation has resulted in a huge
outpouring of work, much of it brilliant, all of it arresting, and
highly original. While experimenting in styles, Kalas brings his
own vision to his paintings. Many of them fill the walls of his
Brooklyn townhouse/studio, and flow over into the basement where
a very large inventory accumulated throughout his life as a painter
is stored. More of his works hang on the walls of collectors, including
the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the
Library of Congress Archives. He has exhibited his work extensively
in the New York and Baltimore area, notably participating in a group
show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005.
Embracing an eclecticism that feeds his continuing artistic evolution,
Kalas employs particular artistic movements as touchstones, while
focusing primarily on the human figure. "The decision was initially
an aesthetic one, although an even deeper response to the human
condition has inspired my work," Kalas points out. "I
believe human beings are noble. We live with the knowledge that
some day our lives will end and we wonder if there is a purpose
to our existence. There is a very tragic, noble quality to this
basic condition.
"In my figurative, abstract works, I include faces that function,
correspond, and communicate like parts of the body, and serve as
visual points of entry in the form of an eye, nose, ear, mouth.
At other times, sectioned-off spaces incorporating the human body
serve as visual impediment against a comprehensive reading."
"Out of Chaos, Order," part of the Metropolitan Museum
Show, offers a visual encapsulation of Kalas's artistic strategy.
This vivid collage of fragmented canvases enjoined by an enigmatic,
mask-like face dramatizes the artist's necessity for continual growth.
Far from dystopian, Kalas breaks with one movement to discover the
next, always seeking ideas that enable him to plumb creative depths.
"Like metaphors for an individual journey shaped by my own
experiences since I came to America in 1960, my paintings reflect
influences of places and people I meet," Kalas says. "I
use symbols and patterns that represent visual relics from other
cultures or societies I often utilize various forms such as masks
that I see in museums. I am intrigued by African masks, and I have
incorporated them in my work such as in 'Evolution.' "
Born in 1940 in Kifisia, Greece, a suburb of Athens, as a child
in Greece Kalas began drawing and painting early on. "Painting
to me was a life force," he says. "I believe I began to
paint even before I was born." He grew up surrounded by wealthy
Americans who arrived in Greece after the Marshall Plan. An "outsider,"
Kalas dreamed of going to America, and emigrated in 1960, initially
staying with a family friend in Brooklyn. He learned English within
a year, and enrolled in Pace College, seeking a bread and butter
job that would enable him to paint. While working for the Bank of
America, a position that took him frequently to London, Kalas pursued
his art, studying at The Art Students League of New York, and at
the New York Academy of Art.
He also realized another burning ambition: to see America on trips
that ranged from camping out in Alaska to a trip to South Carolina
in 1962 that would affect him deeply. For the first time, he encountered
blatant discrimination, including signs that read, "Color not
served here." He recalls: "We went to a place where women
sorted peaches. On one side, the women were all white, and on the
other, they were all black. I questioned it. But all the man there
said to me was, 'You're from Greece. You won't understand. Enjoy
the peaches.' It was a monumental experience. I never forgot it.
"Forty-six years later, this thing was still bubbling inside
me, wanting to surface. This trip brought back my own childhood
memories. I said now that I'm an artist; I want to express all that
I experienced. I'm an outsider. I'm an American by choice, not by
birth, and I love this country. Yet, in America, any time you do
not fit into a mold, you're excluded, discriminated against. This
social injustice has persisted and prevailed throughout American
history, not only towards the black race, but against the poor,
the homeless, the jobless, the handicapped, the old, the gay, and
anyone else that does not fit a standard."
Kalas created a powerful series of paintings called "Social
Justice in America." The twelve pieces included "Descending
Your Throne You Became a Slave," depicting an Afro-American
dressed in a white toga with a gold crown, backed by an American
flag, his face plangent with sorrow. The entire series premiered
at the Fillmore gallery in Brooklyn, where Kalas had been art curator
for two years. About 150 people and press attended the well-received
opening. But the manager of the gallery objected to several of the
paintings; she feared the "edgy" images would offend clients,
including one of a black man being crucified, which, Kalas points
out, depicted "justice itself crucified." Ordered to remove
one-third of his paintings, Kalas stood firm, and resigned from
his curator's position.
"Art is not painting only geraniums and petunias," he
protested. "Art can be ugly. Art must speak to the essentially
human aspect common to all of us if it is to succeed. When it does,
it is timeless and tragic."
Kalas has made a wide-ranging contribution to the Brooklyn arts
community as a member of the Brooklyn Arts Council, and as curator
for the Simon Liu Gallery, for which he staged some very serious
and powerful art exhibitions. The gallery closed in 2006 due to
the Ratner's Brooklyn development of downtown Brooklyn. Kalas then
developed the idea of using Con Edison's Brooklyn corporate lobby
as an art gallery, launching it in 2006. The official curator for
Con Edison, he invites Brooklyn artists to show their work there.
"As a curator, I see my job to be a form of agency for the
artists, but also I'm a sparring partner, critic, tour manager,
press officer and admirer," Kalas points out. "Often I
make specific propositions concerning a show, but again sometimes
I do not. I strongly believe in the freedom of the artists. If you
are interested in art you can only let it be what it is. Artists
have the potential to bend the rules. If they get predictable, the
suspense is gone."
Kalas's work has been featured in "NY Arts Magazine,"
and in the Arts & Entertainment sections of "The Brooklyn
Eagle" (In Brooklyn), and "Brooklyn Courier." (24/7)
He has also been published in the prestigious art journal, "Boheme
Magazine," Paris, France, in 2004.
Proud of his status as a rebel and "outsider" - Kalas
claims an outsider sees more than one on the inside -- he pursues
his art with passion and zeal. "Art to me is like religion,"
Kalas says. "You must believe in it, practice it, and share
it. When I paint, I want the end results to reflect my mood at that
time. Having a range of moods, I have a variety of styles. After
many years of creating figurative paintings, I am now beginning
to change directions and am leaning towards figurative abstract
expressionism.
"Now, in my paintings, I want to offer a creation and have
the viewer complete it with his interpretation. Art should have
its own reality, and not merely mimic the visual world around us.
I believe art should offer more than one view; it no longer belongs
to the artist alone. When we view art, it should take us on an intimate
journey."
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