Portraits

Danco Kalcev cherishes two parallel approaches: one in the realm of abstraction, and the other in figurative art. In both he is equally convincing and dexterous painter. In the area of figuration, in addition to still life, he paints portraits of his contemporaries.  Kalcev is well versed in accurate observation and precise drawing, achieving not only a convincing likeness of the model, but also capturing some characteristic psychological elements. He works from a model, often a photograph, and only rarely with the actual model posing. Thus his exquisite power for detail becomes even more striking. The portraits are drawn with confidence and painted in the classical manner to satisfy the basic intenetion: the painted portrait is intended to be a lively evocation of the original, with the person’s characteristic comportment and recognizable appearance. Kalcev is an artist of the realist portrait, but he also likes to make it pleasing to the person commissioning it; he knows how to highlight the psychological traits, but also to stylize or embellish in order to create the effect of the pleasantness of the model. The background of his portraits is simple and sometimes enriched with decorative elements aimed to raise the degree of significance of the model, emphasize relationship with traditional cultural circles and also enhance the pleasantness resulting from the “ornamental wealth” of motifs in the background; in his work the past and present are not irreconcilable opposites. Kalcev is an artist showing an open heart for the beauty of his craft and for the beauty of the phenomenal. Possessing a highly cultivated painterly skill, refined seriousness and the modest illustriousness of a purely colourist procedure, he aims to give shape to the portrait representations.  Kalcev creates in a time when the meaning of the term postmodern has changed. The end of values has been proclaimed and sensibility has been reformulated. The striving to search in all directions dominates the world of art. This artist has invested a creative effort to achieve coexistence, or recompose and give a new meaning to the scattered ‘fragments of the past’ and the signs of our time. Different motifs and elements have been structured and built upon the background of an imaginary landscape; in fact, the poetic exploration of the unreal involves a profound exploration of reality.