Aristodimos
Kaldis would
be more widely recognized as one of the most original painters
of his day, had he been less of a Bohemian and less of a public
personality. Instead, he tends to be pigeonholed as a naive painter.
However, naive he was certainly not. The true naive is obsessed
by the need for finish, to make things look real. If he paints
a wall, he will describe each brick. Kaldis, on the other hand,
had an unfailing knack for knowing where and when to stop. Like
Bonnard, like Kandinsky, he stops painting as soon as he sees
what the action of the painting has taught him. He was as much
an action painter as the New York abstract expressionists, Gorky,
Pollock, Kline, and de Kooning, who were his friends and colleagues.
Lawrence
Campbell
One of
the things that you have to have to understand Kaldis' paintings
is you have to be interested in painting. You can't expect to
respond to Kaldis' paintings unless you have both an understanding
of, and a real appetite for painting. He was a virtuoso at addressing
that appetite. He had it. he could transmit it. It was in his
fingertips and it's one of the qualities that gives his work it's
distinction, I think.
Hilton
Kramer
Everything
Mr. Kaldis paints is invested with the passion and extravaganceof
his personality, which is given to uncontained outbursts of feeling
and a whimsical ebullience.
Obituary
1979 May 3
The New York Times by C. Gerald Fraser |
Chronology:
1899- August
15, Born to Efstratios and Ourania Kaldis in Dikeli (Atarneus)
Turkey, grows up in Mytilini, Lesbos, Greece. Gymnasium, Lesbos
and Evangelika Seminary, Smyrna, Turkey
1915- Takes over
management of Kaldis shipping firm
1917- Emigrates
to Boston, Massachesetts via Newport News, Virginia
1919- Visits
Paris
1917-1922- Worker
and interpreter at Hood Rubber Company, Watertown, MA
1920's- Studies
writing and accounting procedure at Lasalle Business College,
studies English in Night School
1930-1935- Migrates
to New York City, becomes Economist in Hotel and Restaurant Workers
Union, Local #6, leads Waldorf-Astoria strike
1934- Meets Laurie
Elaine Eglington, Art Critic and Editor of Art News at
home of dancer, Maria Theresa, adoptive daughter of Isadora Duncan.
Three months later marries Laurie Elaine Eglington.
1935-1938 Writer
and Administrator for the Mural Division of the Art Project (WPA)
New York City; meets Kline, Gorky, Rothko, and DeKooning
1938-1939- Trip
to England, France, Italy, and Greece to visit relatives
1940- Laurie
Eglington Kaldis separates from Kaldis and moves to Buffalo with
son, Guy. Works as assistant to Directors, Andrew Ritchie and
then Gordon Washburn. Kaldis becomes full time painter in New
York City.
1941- December,
first one-man show, Artists Gallery. Dr. Albert Barnes acquires
Negro Looking at Modern Art, first living American artist
to be so honored.
1942- November,
one-man show at Carlen Galleries, Philadelphia
1944-1950- Key
to Modern Art Lecture Series, Carnegie Hall, studio [Bill
De Kooning assists by running the latern slide projector.]
1946- Lecturer
at the Rand School
1948- May, Artists
Gallery group show
1950- Washington
Square Inn group show
1951- Artists
Gallery group show. November, Leonardo Da Vinci lecture, Miami,
Florida. December, Artists Gallery, one-man show.
1956- September,
Reunion on Lexington Avenue, Artists Gallery
1957- April,
large picture of Kaldis with scarf, cover of Village Voice.
October, The Thirties, group show, with Pollock, Krasner,
De Kooning, Brandt, Davis, Graham, Gorky, Kline, Reinhardt,
Resnick, Rothko, at the Poindexter Gallery.
1957-1959-Articles
in It Is, published by Philip Pavia.
1959-Picture
in N.Y. Times Sunday Magazine Section, April 19, 1959.
April, Stewart-Marean Gallery, one-man show. November, Art
News, Feature Article with Color Plates. November, Rome-N.Y.
Art Foundation, foreword by Herbert Read.
1962-Museum of
Modern Art, Spoleto International Exhibition, traveling show for
one year. October, Kornblee Gallery, one-man show. November, painting
on cover of Art News.
1964- Kornblee
Gallery, one-man show.
1965- June, Festival
of Two Worlds, Spoleto Exhibit. September, Hecksher Museum, Huntington,
Long Island.
1966- ART USA
Show in New York Coliseum. August, guest Lecturer, Univeristy
of Oregon. Kornblee Gallery, one-man show.
1971- Samos workshop,
taught at the Pythagorean School of Art
1974- Landmark
Gallery, 118 Artists, 1974, 1975
1975- Guggenheim
Fellow in Painting
1977- May, NOEMATA,
Brooklyn Museum, group shpw of Greek-American artists. September,
Kornblee Gallery, one-man show. November, Group Show with De Kooning,
Krasner, Brandt, at Philadelphia College of Art, Lecture.
1978- Second
Guggenheim Fellowship. WPA Show, at the Grey Art Gallery, New
York University. November, one-man show at the Grimaldis Gallery,
Baltimore. Lecture at Maryland College of Art. November 23, Parsons
School Lecture.
1979- May 2,
dies at the age of 79.
1993- January
12, Homage to Kaldis, Artists Equity Panel at Art Students League. |
