There is a clear narrative running through the paintings of Zura Kalanda incorporating elements of music and poetry into his art – a reflection of his diverse range of interests and his complex psychology.
Ever conscious of beauty, in terms of the beauty of nature as well as the nature of beauty itself, Kalanda is renowned for his use of colour. With bold confidence he takes colours from across the whole spectrum and skillfully blends them into subtle shades and tones. His art is sometimes reminiscent of the kind of mosaic captured in that miraculous toy universally loved by children – the kaleidoscope.
The picture “Monologue” is a joyful celebration of beauty and colour, in which Kalanda conveys his delight in humanity. Half a century ago Antoine de St Exupery expressed much the same sentiment in his depiction of human relations as the ultimate luxury.
Kalanda’s “Spring” is another outburst of pent-up, positive emotion, resounding with the cheerful voices of flowers, trees, birds and the whole of nature celebrating the new season with a riot of colour. Kalanda consciously chooses to present spring in its prime, full of vitality, rather than in its early days when weakened after his battle with winter.
Typically the lines in Kalanda’s paintings are used to express his emotional spirituality. In “The Guitarist” and “The Pianist”, the lines ‘sing out’ from the canvas, resounding with rhythm and melody, drawn in shifting colours and contours. Within the lines there is a distinct counterpoint, with each voice contributing to a sense of inner balance and harmony without any harsh contrasts or discordant notes.
The musicians themselves are represented as abstract figures that blend with the dynamics and the phrasing. The music engulfs them and their world and draws the observer into the painting. In this way Kalanda has often been compared with Skryabin and Rakhmaninov who used similar techniques to bind colour and sound together.
Music is an enduring theme in Kalanda’s life and work. As a child he learned to play the violin and he later studied guitar at Music College. For a while he played in an orchestra and would frequently perform his own songs.
Choral singing was an essential part of Kalanda’s early Georgian childhood. His grandfather, who was a professional singer frequently performing in choirs, would sit his young grandsons on his knee and share his talent and passion for song with them.
In “Mirror of the Soul” Kalanda manages to capture the curious kind of flash-backs sometimes experienced when critical moments from the past suddenly appear in the mind’s eye. The painting is unique within Kalanda’s collection in terms of its atmosphere. The background of the painting casts a gloomy shadow over the whole canvas, and even though it is interspersed with lighter, brighter tones, they offer little joy or comfort. The unusually downcast mood of this painting has been attributed to the injustice and hardship that Kalanda’s father endured in his later life. As a famous poet and writer in Soviet times, he was among those sent into exile for his political opinions and spent nearly a decade in the camps. Kalanda’s father had exceptional strength of character and did not allow the cruelty and deprivation he suffered as a political prisoner to break his spirit and he continued to write throughout his imprisonment.
His father played a critical role in Kalanda’s personal and artistic development. Kalanda was inspired by his father’s creative writing and thrived in the heady atmosphere of his social circle, which included several famous artists, composers, writers and poets of the time. Kalanda himself devoted a great deal of time to editing and publishing the works of these Georgian writers, many of them banned.
Despite the anguish Kalanda felt at the cruelty of his father’s fate, he has always remained mentally robust and never descends into pessimism in his artistic expression. With the exception of “Mirror of the Soul”, his paintings and poetry do not transmit the grief and sorrow he undoubtedly experienced. The colours he takes from nature reflect his love of life and the pleasure he takes in his friendships, as well as his extreme modesty and his spiritual purity.
In the paintings where Kalanda adopts a monotyping technique, he tries to convey the full beauty of his surroundings as he perceives them, taking elements of fairytales and objects of general beauty as the basis for the images he creates in his fantasy world. His seemingly random lines are deliberately drawn to reflect his relationship with the world around him. His measured use of light and shade create a sense of spirituality and emotion deeply rooted in the artist’s foundation in poetry, and through his art he enriches the gift of poetry that he inherited from his father as he explores the depths of his soul and his world view.
In addition to his artistic achievements, Kalanda is an accomplished author, composing several poetry collections of considerable merit. Parallels can clearly be found between his lyrics and his paintings and the ideas behind them – another window on Kalanda’s inner world.
Kalanda’s still-lifes and landscapes have also received critical acclaim. His series of landscapes of the Vera region of Tbilisi lovingly capture the colour and spirit of the old town which has changed beyond recognition over the past one and a half thousand years. The narrow, winding lanes that run high and low like streams through his paintings are the same lanes where he spent his childhood – as well as the authors of this piece. They recreate the inimitable charm of the one- and two-storey houses he knew, with their wooden, lace-like balconies and the vivid silhouettes of trees and lamplights dotted along the cobbled roads. In the olden days these streets would have been filled with the voices of traders bringing their milk and fruit to the people of Vera in the early morning. The echoes from the past are virtually audible. Pissarro expressed his love of Paris in much the same way in his depiction of Parisian homes and streets.
“The Asian Motif” differs from Kalanda’s other paintings in terms of its style, which was inspired by the dominant themes of Asian literature. After experiencing the charm of the East, Kalanda created his own artistic and intellectual interpretation of the region based on a synthesis of fairytale characters. The painting is at once both static and dynamic. The foreground is full of the kind of languor and tranquility that is associated with the East. The women are seated in an elegant, grandiose manner, like the creeping vines often seen in fairy tales. The contrast between them and the remaining elements of the painting is stark, with the birds in full flight and the animals leaping across the upper half of the painting, while the rider stands in the centre, holding a bow in his hands. The colour play and the composition as a whole are reminiscent of the kind of Eastern elegiac art often seen in ancient Persian rugs.
The picture “The Warmth of the Family” occupies an important place in the artist’s repertoire. Suffused with kindness and humanity, the painting revolves around a family, with the mother and father seated in the centre, with a baby on their knees and surrounded by their many children. The circle above their heads is highly symbolic. This is family life for Kalanda, a place where life experiences are shared and passed down the family.
The parents form the crux of the whole composition. They are monolithic figures within a monumental fresco, exuding tranquility and endless kindness towards all around them. They are the bulwark of the family and the foundation for the future, with the wisdom of their forefathers travelling down the generations. Their children stand with outstretched hands and open palms, ready to imbibe this wisdom. The over-riding mood is one of progress, tradition and continuity. The way Kalanda portrays the children, in the movements they make and the poses they strike, convey their essential innocence. A single colour is used to represent all the children, and they are almost identical, despite the difference in their ages. None of their facial features are drawn in detail, they are all shown to be of one mind and equal before God. This underlines Kalanda’s idea of the family as a single, cohesive unit.
With its mature vineyard, the background of the painting is unmistakably Georgian, illustrating Kalanda’s passion for his country, widely renowned for its grapes and wine production. The painting also highlights the importance that Georgians attach to their traditional Christian roots as the head of the family holds up a grape, as if to teach his descendants the need to value and preserve the traditional Georgian way of life.
A number of Kalanda’s other works incorporate the kind of rich, ancient fresco seen in “The Warmth of the Family”, including “Expectation”, “Man and a Woman” and “Power”. In these paintings Kalanda embraces traditional Georgian ideas within the framework of contemporary European appreciation of the visual arts.
Kalanda’s creativity was first recognized by his family at a young age, when Kalanda began to write at the age of seven. As he strove to improve his handwriting, he began to play around with the beautiful ‘ornaments’ of the Georgian script and he would amuse himself by transforming the letters of the alphabet into small figures to create a picture. Subsequently a series of famous professional artists took him under their wing to nurture his talent and contribute to his gradual artistic development.
Kalanda has now settled in Holland where he continues to work and exhibit his art alongside Dutch artists. He has won the admiration of Dutch art critics who value his highly original thinking, his breadth of colour and his contemporary language. They recognize the “unbreakable bond he has forged between Dutch culture and his native Georgia”, his “distinctive artistic style”, the “richness of his soul”, the “warmth and optimism in his use of colour” as well as his “profound, philosophical symbolism steeped in the mysticism of fairytales”.
He incorporates complex ideas into his works, using sophisticated techniques. His artistic language is clear, his appeal – international.