Contemporary Art in Context: Jan Kaláb

Jan Kaláb is a Czech painter, sculptor, and street artist whose work is characterized by brilliant, often Day-Glo colors. Since he became a pioneer of street art in the Czech Republic in the 1990s, his work has evolved to include sculpture, traditional painting, and installation art. No matter the art form, vivid color, multilayered compositions, and illusionistic abstraction are at the core of Kaláb’s art. Kaláb calls the pulsating sensations created through his juxtaposition of brilliant colors “motionless motion.”

Geometry, Abstraction, and Op Art
Under the name Cakes, Kaláb created graffiti and street art for nearly a decade before transitioning to abstraction and the new moniker Point. He credits this change to the epiphany he experienced when viewing his 3D letters from behind and noticing that the intersecting letters formed abstract geometric shapes. He began creating minimalist paintings that explore variations of the circle and themes of depth and time, as well as optical and physical movement.

Kaláb usually starts with simple sketches, using a computer to adjust color and composition. He says that adjusting his use of color for sculptures like Anatomy of Rainbow requires his computer studies to be precise in size and composition. Kaláb has also pioneered novel physicality in his works in his use of circular and ovoid stretched canvases, as seen in his Kaleidoscope series. Works like Innocent Kaleidoscope are composed of stacked layers of custom-made canvases that seem to pulsate with energy and color. Kaláb is currently experimenting with animated paintings. He has already introduced moving paintings in installations like the mesmerizing Zone of Mystery, which is a cross between the work of Alexander Calder (1898–1976) and artists of the Op Art movement, particularly Victor Vasarely (1906–1997).

Art History: Op Art
Exploration of the optics of color has been a key element of progressive art in the West since the late 1800s with Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. In abstract art, the optical effects of color were explored by artists such as Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Sonia Terk Delaunay (1885–1979), and Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943). Mid-century Color Field artists such as Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) and Frank Stella (b. 1936) reduced their compositions to single geometric shapes, squares, or lines as vehicles for color studies. In late 1900s, Op artists invested their studies of color with optical stimulation that actively engaged with the physiology of seeing color and pattern. Kaláb builds on and incorporates many of these traits in his own work as he constantly revises his processes and ways of exploring color.

About the Artist
Born in Prague in 1978, Kaláb has been drawing since childhood. He developed a passion for street art in his teens and started tagging with his crew, DSK. He moved to other European cities and finally to New York, where he painted whole subway cars in the early 2000s. In 2007, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and transitioned to abstraction under the name Point. His first solo show was in 2008 in Prague, followed by solo shows in Europe, South America, and the United States.

ARTIST Q&A
What is a typical workday like for you?
JK: I wake up before 7 a.m., and I go to my studio around 8:30. I begin with emails, computer work, and online meetings, then after that, I paint. I keep working until 7:30 p.m. It’s great if I can paint the whole afternoon, but sometimes I’m interrupted by organization stuff, such as calls and shipping.

Do you have specific strategies, rituals, or routines that help you work and/or generate ideas?
JK: My strategy is to keep my routine as much as I can so I am able to do continuous work. I work hard during the work week, then try to forget about work on the weekends. New ideas always come to mind though, regardless of my schedule. Sometimes by improving a technique I’ve used for years, or an impulsive idea will put me out of my comfort zone of thinking.

Tell us about one of the biggest moments in your career.
JK: A big moment was after graduation from the Academy of Arts in Prague and realizing that I was on my own now; that was hard. Another big moment was the completion of a huge installation in the MASP Museum in São Paulo in 2011. I was part of a group exhibition with huge names in the street art scene. Otherwise, all the solo exhibitions I have done were big moments in my artistic career, but I’m still waiting for some official recognition, like an institutional solo exhibition.

How is your past work in street art reflected in your minimalist and trompe l’oeil works?
JK: At the time, my canvases were the walls outside—buildings, train cars, etc. I always paid attention to what surrounded my paintings, and many times I reacted to the environment in which my wall paintings were. I have an architectural thinking in certain ways, and I learned in the streets that you perceive the artwork differently depending on the distance, angle, and time of day you look at it. In my latest minimalist works, I like to play with illusions and blur the lines between two opposites. Like in real life, you think you know something, but you find out the truth is the total opposite of what it actually is or looks like. And in the end, it’s not that important because it is all universal.

Please explain which elements of Franz Kupka’s work, such as his cubistic forms of color, impacted your own works.
JK: His abstract compositions in space are special. I don’t see any similarities in perception of space in the works of other abstract artists from his time, like Mondrian or Kandinsky. Their paintings seem flat to me compared to Kupka’s paintings. In the works of Kupka, I admire the complexity of the architectural space in his paintings; it’s not important if you look at the geometry or the organic nature of the paintings. The total sense of the space is there, the same with its colors—this is what impacted my way of thinking about my art.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as an emerging artist?
JK: I would say, don’t doubt yourself so much—it doesn’t lead you anywhere. Trust in what you do, and don’t be afraid to invest in it as much as you can. It will always pay off.

DISCUSSION
Introduce students to examples of foundational Op Art from artists such as Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, along with examples of vibrant abstract patterns and computer-generated fractal designs.

After some discussion, ask students, “How might an artist living and working today use the elements of Op Art to create new artwork?” Explore responses from several students before introducing them to Kaláb’s work, including Anatomy of Rainbow and Innocent Kaleidoscope. Ask students to pay close attention to his use of similar shapes and designs from one media to the next. Ask, “How might one of your drawings or paintings be different if it were turned into a sculpture?”

STUDIO EXPERIENCES

Fill a single sheet of paper with lines and patterns that create a sense of movement or vibration. If it doesn’t work on your first attempt, try again. Hint: repetition of the same kind of line (curved, zigzag) or rounded shapes will help.
Create a two-dimensional composition that uses geometric shapes and color to create a sense of movement or optical illusion.
Create a small painting and a small sculpture based on the same abstract design.
Create a sketch for an abstract artwork based on a minimal design, such as geometric or organic shapes. Create two to three artworks, each using different media, that explore and expand upon your original sketch. How different can you make them while still retaining recognizable elements of your original sketch?

Motionless Motion