Watercolors

February 13 to May 30, 2020

Opening on Thursday, February 13, 2020, from 6:00 to 8:00pm.
At the same time, Gallery Larkin Erdmann is opening the exhibition:
Antonio Calderara – Luce.

This exhibition is primarily dedicated to the watercolors of the painter Antonio Calderara. Suffused with delicate sensitivity, they are of particular and inestimable significance in the work of the artist. They have a firmly established value and occupy an important and varied position in his oeuvre.

An entire spectrum of characteristics of watercolor painting lends itself to playing an influential role in the creation process and genesis of the works. Light – the expansive and central theme of the painter – is made evident and visible in unique fashion.

The transparency of the watercolors, the delicate quality of the pigments, the small format of the paper and its texture, which gives the fast-drying paints a finely structured surface as part of the overall appearance: all these aspects enable the development and appraisal of ideas of form and color and image concepts. Moreover, the creation of these delicate pieces did not take up the same extended amount of time as required for the panel paintings with their many layers of paint.

A rather striking observation must be made here. Light, space, color as interconnected elements of a visually perceptible reality: this reference to reality in the work of the painter Antonio Calderara is conveyed in the watercolors through the transparency of the paint application, but in the panel paintings by the dense and closed-off surfaces, thereby exemplifying the same thing in an opposite manner.

For Antonio Calderara’s graphic work, a preparatory phase in watercolor form was just as indispensable, especially in the case of the "Cartelle", the portfolios. The fact that these watercolors exist as superb, independent originals is highly gratifying.

Particularly in his late creative years, Calderara realized a great wealth of form and color constellations in his graphic art. With the technique of serigraphy, he was inspired and delighted by the expansion of his creative possibilities that was thus afforded to him.

The first exhibition of Antonio Calderara in our gallery took place from October 29 to December 3, 1969. Over the years, our subsequent exhibition activities were accompanied by the publication of works of graphic art and portfolios by the artist.

All images here in the lightbox.