Colette Calascione’s surreal, seductive beauties
Two-Faced Portrait (1996) © Colette Calascione
The women of NY-based painter Colette Calascione‘s world are the most luscious and enigmatic lot you’re likely to encounter in modern classical painting. Inspired by Victorian portraiture and Surrealism, Calascione is gifted with an Old Master’s hand for technique, a fevered imagination, a wicked sense of humor and a reverence for the feminine form rivaling that of Vargas himself. The resulting work is whimsical, provocative and elegant in turns. Demure masked nudes entice viewers with smoldering eye contact and slight, come-hither smiles. Grand dames of the parlour consort with beastly Ernstian suitors. The rosy aura of myth and allegory that surrounds these ladies is a fetching as their silken lingerie… maybe more so.
Scrupulous attention is paid to everything, and the color and contrast she imbues in each form — powdery decolletage, folds of drapery, the riotously rococo backgrounds — is exceptional.
Truly, Calascione knows that Goddess is in the details.
Illumination (2003)
More images and links under the cut.
detail from Coincidental Gathering (2003/2004)
Cat Mask (2003)
Milky Way (1998)
Swimmer (1998)
Cockfight (2004)
Internal Landscapes (2003)
Tickle (2000)
detail from Monkey Love (2004)
All images © Colette Calascione.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:30 am
*jawdrop*
I am in LOVE. I wish she sold prints!!
— A :D
January 14th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Those paintings are so wonderfully, subtly bizarre, I love them! There are so many details it takes a while to notice.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:09 am
There’s so much of this happening right now, its such a beautiful scene! i saw that Kirsten Anderson is already coining the term “Pop Baroque” for these new masters-
So many amazing painters popping up in this genre, ALSO usually introduced to me by Meredith, and so many of them seem to be popping out of New York too?
What’s the scoop?
January 14th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
[…] You should go see the rest of her work and hope that she decides to do another show soon. Thanks to Meredith at Coilhouse! […]
January 15th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I love that detail from Monkey Love! Milky Way, LOL. They’re all so opulent!
January 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I love her work so much!
January 21st, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Wonderful. I love the double-faced women the best.
Oh, and the cherub pissing on the cat is pretty sweet, too.