Gyula Kalko – CCCA Canadian Art Database

Gyula Kalko

Gyula Kalko was an established commercial artist and illustrator in Hungary prior to his immigration to Montréal in 1982. Thirteen at the time of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Kalko walked the streets of Budapest, photographing the destruction in the wake of military Soviet suppression. In the 1970s, Kalko began accepting communist government commissions to produce posters. Less regulated than the fine arts (i.e. painting), Kalko, like other progressive Hungarian artists in the 1960s and 1970s, saw in graphic art, a medium that afforded the freedom to engage in implicit forms of resistance against official communist doctrine. In 1982 Kalko left Hungary for Poland, where the Solidarity movement was at its height but was expelled shortly after his arrival because he was considered a potential dissident and Solidarity sympathizer. In 1992, Kalko began The Circle of History, a series of twenty oil paintings which refer to various historical art works of different periods and identifies continuities between events in contemporary society and history. One particular painting in this series refers to Boris Yeltsin's efforts to bring about reforms which resulted in the siege of the Russian Parliament by Communist troops. Kalko depicts Russian soldiers, in the same manner in which Sumerian soldiers were depicted in the bas-relief relating the story of a Sumerian ruler’s conquest of the city of Umma. Kalko merges historical narratives with contemporary occurrences by drawing parallels between this event in Sumerian history and the Communist resistance to the emerging democratic movement. In another painting in this series, Kalko appropriates elements from Massacre of the Innocents by Guido Reni, a painting relating the massacre of the children of Bethlehem by Herod's soldiers. Kalko imparts his version with contemporary relevance, by depicting Serbian soldiers, an allusion to war-torn Bosnia.

Creator Id: 313
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Country of Birth: Hungary
Year of Birth: 1943
City: Toronto
Country: Canada
Type of Creator: Artist
Gender: Female
Mediums: painting
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Work by Gyula Kalko

Circle of History VI (detail)

Work ID: 21409

Description: reference:Peter Brugel the Elder, The Tower of Babel, 1554/55 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1992

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History VI

Work ID: 21408

Description: reference:Peter Brugel the Elder, The Tower of Babel, 1554/55 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1992

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History I

Work ID: 21398

Description: reference: Carel Fabritius, The Guardsman, 1654 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1992

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XI (detail)

Work ID: 21419

Description: reference: Caravaggio, Bacchus, 1595/97 (detail)

Measurements: :40 x 30

Collection:

Date Made: 1992

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History I (detail)

Work ID: 21399

Description: reference: Carel Fabritius, The Guardsman, 1654 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1992

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XI

Work ID: 21418

Description: reference: Caravaggio, Bacchus, 1595/97 (detail)

Measurements: :40 x 30

Collection:

Date Made: 1992

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XIII

Work ID: 21422

Description: reference: Francesco del Cossa, The Truimph of Venus and the Sign of Taurus, an allegory of the Month of April, c.1470 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History II (detail)

Work ID: 21401

Description: reference: Guido Reni, The Massacre of the Innoncents, 1611/12 (detail)

Measurements: :48 x72

Collection:

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History II

Work ID: 21400

Description: reference: Guido Reni, The Massacre of the Innoncents, 1611/12 (detail)

Measurements: :48 x72

Collection:

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History VII

Work ID: 21410

Description: reference: Marinus van Nerswaele, The Money Changers (?), 1514 (detail)

Measurements: :40.2 x 30

Collection: CIBC Swiss Bank Collection, Geneva, Switzerland

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XIII (detail)

Work ID: 21423

Description: reference: Francesco del Cossa, The Truimph of Venus and the Sign of Taurus, an allegory of the Month of April, c.1470 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History III (detail)

Work ID: 21403

Description: reference: Nicolas Poussin, The Rape of the Sabine Wonen, c.1630 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History III

Work ID: 21402

Description: reference: Nicolas Poussin, The Rape of the Sabine Women, c.1630 (detail)

Measurements: :72 x 48

Collection:

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History VII (detail)

Work ID: 21411

Description: reference: Marinus van Nerswaele, The Money Changers (?), 1514 (detail)

Measurements: :40.2 x 30

Collection: CIBC Swiss Bank Collection, Geneva, Switzerland

Date Made: 1993

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History IV (detail)

Work ID: 21405

Description: reference: The Stele of the Vultures, a limestone stele of victory of Eannatum"Divine Bailiff" of Lagas, from Tello, Ur Phase, about 2560 B.C. (detail)

Measurements: :76 x 62

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XIV

Work ID: 21424

Description: reference: Annibale Carracci, The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, fresco on the central section of the vault of the Palazzo Farnese, Rome, completed in 1604 (detail)

Measurements: :84 x 41.7

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XIV (detail)

Work ID: 21425

Description: reference: Annibale Carracci, The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, fresco on the central section of the vault of the Palazzo Farnese, Rome, completed in 1604 (detail)

Measurements: :84 x 41.7

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History IX (detail)

Work ID: 21415

Description: reference: Jan Vermeer van Delft, Matchmaking, 1656 (detail)

Measurements: :54 x 40

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History V (detail)

Work ID: 21407

Description: reference: The workshop of Peter Rubens, The Horrors of War, 1637 (detail)

Measurements: :48 x 72

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XII

Work ID: 21420

Description: reference: Painting in Tomb of the Bulls, erotic scenes of frieze of rear wall, Necropolis of Monterozzi, Tarquinia, 550-540 B.C. (detail)

Measurements: :64 x 60

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History V

Work ID: 21406

Description: reference: The workshop of Peter Rubens, The Horrors of War, 1637 (detail)

Measurements: :48 x 72

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History IV

Work ID: 21404

Description: reference: The Stele of the Vultures, a limestone stele of victory of Eannatum"Divine Bailiff" of Lagas, from Tello, Ur Phase, about 2560 B.C. (detail)

Measurements: :76 x 62

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History IX

Work ID: 21414

Description: reference: Jan Vermeer van Delft, Matchmaking, 1656 (detail)

Measurements: :54 x 40

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History XII (detail)

Work ID: 21421

Description: reference: Painting in Tomb of the Bulls, erotic scenes of frieze of rear wall, Necropolis of Monterozzi, Tarquinia, 550-540 B.C. (detail)

Measurements: :64 x 60

Collection:

Date Made: 1994

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History X

Work ID: 21416

Description: reference: Aztec Youth from Tamuin, San Luis Potosi, Museo Nacional de Antropologia

Measurements: :27.5 x 54.3

Collection:

Date Made: 1995

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

Circle of History X (detail)

Work ID: 21417

Description: reference: Aztec Youth from Tamuin, San Luis Potosi, Museo Nacional de Antropologia

Measurements: :27.5 x 54.3

Collection:

Date Made: 1995

Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA