Peter Halley at KARMA Denzil Hurley at CANADA

James Kalm is a dropout. Although only a few credits short of receiving a bachelor's degree, your correspondent was in too big a hurry to get to New York and actually start trying to be an artist, so he never completed his college studies. This situation has led to a certain skepticism regarding the importance of a “diploma” or institutional education. With that in mind, it has been noted recently that the concept of artistic legacy, or influence, is a major vector of artistic momentum. This tendency as propounded by Harold Bloom in in his 1973, book “The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry”.
“Peter Halley Paintings and Drawings 1980-1981 at Karma” presents works from a crucial period of the artist’s early career. Having studied at Yale and returned decades later to head its painting and print programs, there’s a vector of Modern Formalism that is apparent in his work, which came through this university’s heritage, and the essential presence there of Joseph Albers, linking it to the historic Bauhaus.
“Denzil Hurley: To be pained is to have lived through feeling” brings forth works from a parallel aesthetic. Hurley was also a Yale alumnus, studying in the painting department, and then relocating to Seattle to teach and work for his last two decades. This artist developed his own unique take on the Formalist approach, and lead to some of this tendency’s most sensitive and “hand-crafted” examples. A musical introduction is provided by Simpleton. This program was recorded June 17 and June 30, 2023. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk