The Art of Kalervo Palsa
Kalervo Palsa used an incredibly varied palette of techniques and materials even including housepaint. The subjects with the richest content, generally received the most hurried and crude treatment. The over 1000 self-portraits on the other hand generally were treated at the very least with competent technique.
Mostly the works explore in graphic detail the dark side of humanity in general and his native northern regions specifically. Grotesque sexuality, sadism, homosexuality, bisexuality and a general emotional frigidity paraphilia reflect his own inner turmoil and were perhaps a reaction to the mental atmosphere of his hometown.
Palsa did have a brief fling with abstract art while staying in New York, but as he recounts in his diary, that phase came to an abrupt halt when one day he saw a passed out black man sprawled on a subway bench.
Besides Hieronymous Bosch, his work has been compared to that of Frida Kahlo.
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