Lawrence Calcagno Color and Light
Lawrence Calcagno (1913-1993)
Color and Light
December 5, 2024 - March 31, 2025
Addison Rowe Gallery is pleased to announce the exclusive representation of the Lawrence Calcagno Estate. The gallery has a long history of promoting the legacies of significant artists whose contributions have been overlooked due to shifting market dynamics or cultural challenges.
Gallery owner Victoria Addison Rowe states: “This exhibition is deeply personal to me, as it springs from my longstanding connection to the work of Lawrence Calcagno and my years of collaborationwith his estate. The estate has worked tirelessly to keep his legacy alive, and this exhibition is part of a broader effort to restore Calcagno's rightful place in the history of modern American art. In collaboration with Amar Gallery, London, Color and Light represents the third gallery exhibition of Calcagno’s work in the past three months, significantly broadening his reach and establishing his presence in international art markets, ensuring his enduring impact on the art world.”
Signed, titled and dated: verso
Opposite: Untitled, 1993
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 36 inches
Constellation of the Inner Eye #77, 1977-1978, mixed media on paper, 30 x 22 inches, signed: lower right, titled and dated: lower left
Lawrence Calcagno is renowned for his bold, textured canvases that breathe new life into landscape painting. His seascapes are dynamic, pulsating compositions full ofenergy,whilehislandscapesarelayeredwith vibrant strokes of color and thick, expressive impasto. Calcagno’s innovative use of color and texture imbues his work with a unique vibrancy and light that seems to animate the compositions, creating an exhilarating visual experience that shifts and evolves with each glance.
This exhibition places Lawrence Calcagno at the forefront, celebrating his remarkable contributions as an artist. It also acknowledges his personal and professionalrelationshipwiththepioneeringmodernist painter Beauford Delaney, underscoring the challenges they both faced in 1950s America. As an interracial, homosexual couple in an era of intense racial and societal prejudice, the pair endured personal and professional hardships. This exhibition honors their bond and highlights the resilience they demonstrated in the face of such adversity.
Calcagno was a self-taught artist until after World War II, when he studied painting under the G.I. Bill in San Francisco, working with influential figures such as Clyfford Still and visiting artist Mark Rothko. In the years that followed, Calcagno became an integral part of the second generation of Abstract Expressionist
painters, exhibiting in both San Francisco and New York. During this period, he developed a distinctive personal style of landscape painting, one that can be viewed as a metaphorical exploration of nature itself. His color palette often dominated by the fiery oranges and reds of the California landscape reflects the vivid, saturated hues of his environment. His more minimalist pieces, in contrast, evoke the misty fog of San Francisco, where shapes and forms emerge and dissolve in a way that speaks to the subconscious mind.
Throughout his career, Calcagno exhibited at prestigious galleries worldwide, with numerous solo shows, including at the Martha JacksonGallery in New York,which championedhiswork from1955onwards. His work has been included in major museum exhibitions atinstitutionssuch as theWhitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and theSanFranciscoMuseumofModernArt,tonamejust a few.
The exhibition at Addison Rowe Gallery will feature a stunning selection of paintings and watercolors, many of which are drawn from the estate’s holdings. These works offer a powerful glimpse into the world of Lawrence Calcagno his vision, his technique, and his place in the broader narrative of American modernism.
Midday Sun, 1959
Ink on paper
13 3/4 x 11 inches
Signed top left: verso
Opposite: Untitled Landscape, 1982
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 30 inches
Signed and dated: verso
Morning Sun, 1959
Ink on paper
13 3/4 x 11 inches
Signed top middle: verso
Cosmicscape XVII, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 31 inches, signed, titled and dated: verso
Opposite: Floating Landscape, 1976 – 1979, acrylic on canvas, 78 X 68 inches, signed, titled and dated: verso
Untitled Landscape, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 56 x 38 inches, signed, titled and dated: verso
White Garden, New York, 1990, oil on canvas, 48 x 40 inches, signed, titled and dated: verso
Semaphores, 1948, oil on canvas, 40 x 32 inches, signed and dated: lower left
Opposite: Circle of Fire, 1990, oil on linen, 46 x 56 inches, signed, titled and dated: verso
Black Beach, 1963, oil on canvas, 42 x 36 inches, signed and dated: verso
Opposite: Summer Ritual II, 1986, acrylic on rag paper, 22 x 30 inches, signed: lower right
Sun Forest, 1948, oil on canvas, 32 x 22 inches, signed and dated: verso
Opposite: Constellation of the Inner Eye No. 140, 1977-1978, acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 ¼ inches, signed: lower right, titled and dated: lower left
Untitled, 1963, watercolor on paper, 12 x 11 1/4 inches, signed and dated: lower left
This catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition:
Lawrence Calcagno | Color and Light
December 5, 2024 – March 31, 2025
Addison Rowe Gallery 229 East Marcy Street Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87501
505-982-1533
www.addisonrowe.art
addart@addisonrowe.com
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Publication © 2024 Addison Rowe Gallery
All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced without the written permission of Addison Rowe Gallery
Curated by Victoria Addison Rowe
Catalogue design by Margaret Fensterer
Photography by Matthew Rowe
On the cover: Constellation of the Inner Eye #77, 1977-1978
Mixed media on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Frontispieces: Red Season II, 1962 Oil on canvas, 30 x 25
