EDWARD KALIENTE AND ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

Pablo Picasso once said, “Everything you can imagine is real.” Certainly as both a medical doctor and an artist that holds particularly true for Edward Kaliente. One must look no further than Kaliente’s “sailboat and lighthouse” to see that even an abstract expressionist painting can give us the impression of reality.

Kaliente’s unique combination of abstract expressionism with realist elements is both an acceptance and rejection of past artistic movements. First, Kaliente does adhere to many of what was classified at the beginning of the modern movement as “new modern art” principles. Kaliente shifts from painting what the painter sees visually with what the artist should “visualize.” Kaliente believes that only at the conceptual level can a painter portray the truth of what he is painting.

As seen in “sailboat and lighthouse” Kaliente uses strong elements of Fauvism to characterize a typical oceanic seen. Kaliente believed that only strong colors and a variety of colors painted together and simultaneously could create the proper effect for a viewer. Kaliente did not generally paint with the sharp angles and shapes as characterized by the majority of Picasso’s work yet drew upon other parts of Picasso’s painting philosophy. Rather, Kaliente, does paint with a more “heaven like” structure as exhibited by many of Matisse’s works. Yet, Kaliente would not shy away from painting with darker tones because Kaliente did believe that reality was sometimes ominous and depressing.

Kaliente’s painting uses an overtone of “red paint” at the top of the painting. A red overtone and a red sky were often used by early modernist and expressionist painters as a means of providing contrast in their paintings and as a method of portraying a type of “foreshadowing” of events. In Picasso’s Les Demoiselles 1907he uses a red overtone for his characters and contrasts the characters with different shades of red. By using varying degrees of red, light red, and pink he is able to shift the viewer’s attention to different aspects of the paintings, particularly the cubist elements. Kaliente by using red is able to contrast the red sky with the white and green boats below.

Further, in Edvard Munch’s The Scream 1893 we see that Munch sets a “red sky” against blue waves beneath it. Kaliente provides a similar affect in his painting. Kaliente intentionally paints the sky red to provide a theme of “caution” to the boats below. Moreover, like Munch he is able to temper the red with a blue sky beneath. Kaliente makes an interesting choice to put “small” but defined white strokes in the red sky as a way to dilute the red. It is these same white strokes that define the backbone of one of the boats below.

In addition, Kaliente uses an incredible mixture of colors to portray the water beneath the boats. Kaliente actually breaks with Fauvism and Cubism (which are generally characterized as solid colors) when painting the water. Kaliente uses elements of impressionism instead to capture the “uncertainness” of the water below. Kaliente’s water painting draws impressive similarities to Claude Monet’sThe Regatta at Argenteuil 1872, and Sunrise 1873. Kaliente uses a series of short brush strokes to carefully blend white, blue, pink, and green. Monet used a similar technique to paint the ocean and ponds. Monet would use short blue and green strokes to create ripple effects in the waves.

Furthermore, Kaliente paints the two boats very distinctly. In Monet’s boat and marina scenes he would generally paint the boats in the same direction, with the same colors. Kaliente’s unique style involves painting two distinct boats facing different directions. The first boat is painted sideways and given a “skeletal” like structure. The viewer when looking at the boat can see the transparency of the boat. On the other hand, the boat in the background is painted form the front like a “realist” boat. The boat is shaded and has all the elements of a boat that could be seen in real life. We see that Kaliente provides the viewer with an incredible experience, being able to view an abstract boat and a real boat at the same time in the same painting.