Kalevi Liski

Basic information

b. 1937, Vuoksela
Painter
Residence: Helsinki

Contact information

Phone number: +358400866453

Artist’s Statement

Everything begins of the light. In the morning the sun is starting to light Kalevi Liski’s atelier. The paintings are bathing in yellow light. Kalevi Liski’s favorite color is yellow. It brings the bright attitude to the life. It is joy. The artist will return to the shades of yellow over and over again. The rhythm will come after the light. The color of white rhymes the canvas like the pause gives rhythm to the music. The painting will have movement it is full of vivid flashes, contrast and light. When studying very near you can see the rough dabs of color. The effect of color tries to achieve the viewer’s eye.

Kalevi Liski’s approach is not to create a sketch but every painting is an adventure to him. The first contact with the canvas is unique and a further step in his process of experimentation is a puzzle to himself, too. A wide range of different shapes seem to float in an interesting result in one painting you can find many. The artist is saying “I have a feeling that now I can fulfill my desire I have been looking for a long time “. You can join to the adventure and the painting will give you the visual experience.

- Raisa Jäntti
Show biography

Current information

Ateljé Liski & Liski
Eerikinkatu 43
00180 Helsinki

tel. +358 (0)400-866 453
tel. +358 (0)400-970 882

Bio

SHED LIGHT ON CANVAS

Entering Kalevi Liski’s atelier in Helsinki the late summer morning sun lit up the  exhibited collection of the paintings. The sun is starting to light the paintings  then you can see that  the light and the colour of yellow shed on canvas are essential to his paintings. The exhibition was fully developed in different sunlight. The artist was capturing his colour of yellow in Italy, too.

At the Piazza Pitti Palace hotel of Florence it is possible to stay in a room where you can enjoy the frescoes from the 15th century.  Kalevi Liski wanted to see the room and try whether it has effect on his paintings. When at home in Finland new series of work was painted and it reflected the artist’s passion for rendering his Florentine experience. Finally in his atelier the paintings could aspire to having the same effect as music. The atmosphere of intense echoes his paintings from the colour of yellow to white and light blue.

OPEN WINDOW

He paints with a palette knife. He will begin to feel the idea that he is going to sketch on canvas. He doesn’t avoid the white background but will make it a rhythm. The colour of white pauses like the music lives during the breaks. What type of music he is listening to when painting? For example “Agon of Stravinsky” might be impressive as it creates contrast that is appearing in his painting, too. “The rhythm is the one I am aiming at.” “The loose touch  to a painting” the artist describes. Kalevi Liski has a habit of exhibiting several  paintings unfinished at the same time one here another there and third one far away. While working he flips through his paintings and looks round different directions. Eventually the painting has many directions. The viewer has then the freedom to see the picture in many ways. “I do not want to make clearly defined works” Kalevi Liski states. “You have to repair them constantly”. The painting must have gaps and space, light and time so that it articulates the desires of the audience.  The narrower the world is the more difficult is to look at the picture like an open kaleidoscope.  He wants to leave the window open and let a flickering light play on the surface of the painting.

FROM BLACK AND WHITE TO YELLOW

Kalevi Liski began his career to the world of art at the theatre that was his great love already as a child. At the theatre he got involved in the work of a set designer. After studying stage design and art he had a long career at YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company). Due to his experience as a set designer he created a visual language for describing space,  light, motion and the many  layers of  colour that  can  be seen in his paintings today. The pictures can be seen as a stage where the viewer’s eyes move quickly and sort out the colours of the painting. Kalevi Liski began his career as a set designer during the period of black and white TV.  The  colourless  time  was hard  for him and he had a feeling that everything swept away.  The timetable was often very tight that is why it was boring to design black and white sets for various productions. “I had a feeling  that  I  couldn’t  see  colours  anymore” the artist recalls.

Although  Kalevi Liski  is  fond  of strong  colours in his  art  the years do not fade his relationship to yellow. To him the colour of yellow is joy and it brings the bright attitude to the life. Since then he was inspired by yellow his paintings were not dominated by the other colours. He looks for the contrasting colours to create harmonious effects.

ADVENTURE

“Nowadays having a sensitive soul you have a feeling to be out of it all” Liski says. The colours reflect his emotions and he combines various elements of his works referring to  the  ideal  life and man’s place in the world. Sometimes the painting is unfinished quite a long time. A small touch is missing and finally the work will have the new rhythm to its life. Kalevi Liski prefers to paint large works because the palette knife fits better to his technique. The artist is saying that now I can fulfill the expectations I have for my work. At last he neither avoids using the white canvas nor the primer. The painting is always an adventure Liski says. He doesn’t sketch but appreciates the first touch to the canvas. It is the unique flow of moments which create the work of art.

SOMETHING WONDERFUL AND NEW

I am leaving Kalevi Liski’s atelier. The exhibited paintings are lit by the hot sunlight from every side. The shadows will reveal the three-dimensional surface of the painting like a model of a scenery. You can track the motion layer by layer which are covered with strokes of the palette knife.

The colours of the paintings will arouse secure and marvelous feelings. I am walking with light steps when leaving the atelier. On the pavement I am seeing something wonderful and new on every spot of sunlight as if a new world is opening under the grey surface.

Raisa Jäntti

Art critic

Translated by Marita Virtanen