Kalervo Palsa

Hugo Kalervo Palsa (March 12, 1947 - October 3, 1987), or Kalle was a Finnish artist in a style that has been described as fantastic realism.

The art of Kalervo Palsa

Kalervo Palsa used an incredibly varied palette of techniques and materials even including housepaint. The subjects with the richest content, generally received the most hurried and crude treatment. The over 1000 self-portraits on the other hand generally were treated at the very least with competent technique.

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Mostly the works explore in graphic detail the dark side of humanity in general and his native northern regions specifically. Grotesque sexuality, sadism, homosexuality, bisexuality and a general emotional frigidity paraphilia reflect his own inner turmoil and were perhaps a reaction to the mental atmosphere of his hometown.

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Palsa did have a brief fling with abstract art while staying in New York, but as he recounts in his diary, that phase came to an abrupt halt when one day he saw a passed out black man sprawled on a subway bench.

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Besides Hieronymous Bosch, his work has been compared to that of Frida Kahlo.

Related Topics:
Hieronymous Bosch - Frida Kahlo

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Influences

Palsa drew a great deal of influence from both the lives and works of numerous painters, writers and philosophers. Painters who influenced him include Magritte and Van Gogh. His works include clear references to such people as Sartre, Strindberg and

Related Topics:
Magritte - Van Gogh - Sartre - Strindberg

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Genet, and many more subtle influences are listed on the first page of Eläkeläinen muistelee, where he mentions such kindred spirits as Jonathan Swift and Lenin among many others.

Related Topics:
Genet - Jonathan Swift - Lenin

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Despite this brand of what might be called intertextuality, some researchers have noted that though he remained active in his work up to his death in 1987, his work did not show signs of the postmodernism evident in the work of many other artists of the time.

Related Topics:
Intertextuality - Postmodernism

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Notable works

• Turva ("Security") is a painting of a giant anus surrounded by images of all the Boschian horrors that a sensitive artist could imagine. At the center of the painting the anus opens as a window showing a man blissfully seated in a rockingchair seemingly untouched by the horrors.
• Missi Paskantaa ("A Beauty Pageant Contestant Takes a Dump") a black-and-white inked comic strip. The work consists of a few pages of Pythonian deadpan illustrated technical description of the practical ramifications of even beauty pageant contestants having to defecate. It finally ends with an illustrated listing of varieties of consistency of faeces that might come out such a girls anus with attendant analysis.
• Eläkeläinen Muistelee ("Retiree Reminisces") A black-and-white inked comic-book recounting a plethora of highly surreal homosexual sadistic tales.
• Miehen Kuukautiset ("The Male Period") Painting of a man's bleeding anus.