KaliTahoe Green, Palm Springs, CA1969
1969
About the Item
- Creator:Kali (1932 - 2019, American)
- Creation Year:1969
- Dimensions:Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 15 in (38.1 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU298930462
Kali
Joan Marie Archibald was born in 1932 and raised on Long Island, New York. Wed and divorced by the age of 30, she left everything behind for California and a new life — and a new identity as "Kali."
While Kali had studied art and photography previously, no one knows exactly when and how her artistic practice and style developed. She began using an improvised darkroom in the master bath of her Palm Springs home to print 16 by 20 inch photographs. She chose her subjects carefully, which included friends, pets, acquaintances, children, her children’s friends (including a young Cindy Sherman), and surroundings. Late into the night, Kali then used dyes, screens, and organic material in the swimming pool to layer moody and psychedelic abstractions over the photographs and dried the textured prints in the desert sun.
The social and political turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s encouraged a more experimental artistic culture in the Los Angeles area. Artists began recontextualizing photographs as “objects” open to manipulation — rejecting the more straightforward and classical approach of photographers like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. Kali was a prolific pioneer of this alternative photography and her vibrant images marry a bohemian sensuality indicative of the time period and her lifestyle with a more emotional spontaneity.
In the 1970s, Kali continued her practice with the Polaroid camera. Instead of manipulating the Polaroid prints, she used multiple exposures and projections of light in camera to startling, eerie effect — particularly on a series of haunting self-portraits. Much later in her life, Kali documented her fascination with UFOs and extraterrestrials by monitoring and photographing images of flickering transmissions and unexplained streaks and blobs of light from the security cameras surrounding her property in Pacific Palisades.
Despite her prolific artistic output, Kali revealed her work to few and seems to have retreated just when she may have started to gain recognition. The only known article featuring her work was in the November 1970 edition of Camera 35 magazine and the author noted that Kali’s “Artography” (her trademarked name) was “was beyond the capabilities of mere machines. In fact, there is not a way to reproduce one of her images; as a result each of them is an original.”
In her 80s, Kali began to suffer the effects of Parkinson’s disease and memory loss. Her daughter Susan helped her move in to a nursing home and at the same time discovered the immense collection of Kali’s artwork and writing. Soon after Kali’s death in 2019, the collection was organized and archived by Susan and Kali’s former son-in-law, photographer Len Prince.
Find original Kali art on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Staley-Wise Gallery)
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Sortie de la Messe a SceauxBy Robert DoisneauLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographer.Category
1940s Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Piet MondrianBy Andre KerteszLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographer.Category
1920s Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Carolyn Benezet, Femmina, Conde Nast Traveler, RomeLocated in New York, NY11x14 inches / 28x36 cm Edition of 12 + 3 Artist’s Proofs 20x30 inches / 51x76 cm Edition of 9 + 3 Artist’s Proofs 30x40 inches / 76x102 cm Edition of 9 + 3 Artist’s Proof...Category
1990s Black and White Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment, Silver Gelatin
- La Trepidante WandaBy Robert DoisneauLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographer.Category
1950s Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Kate Moss, Key to the Future, Harper’s Bazaar Uomo, New YorkLocated in New York, NY11x14 inches / 28x36 cm Edition of 25 + 3 Artist’s Proofs 20x30 inches / 51x76 cm Edition of 25 + 3 Artist’s Proofs 30x40 inches / 76x102 cm Edition of 9 + 3 Artist’s Proo...Category
1990s Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin, Archival Pigment
- Tango: Bibi and Dr. BoucardBy Jacques Henri LartigueLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographer.Category
1920s Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Passing Through 2 (Abstract photography)By Tenesh WebberLocated in London, GBPassing Through 2 (Abstract photography) Silver Gelatin Print - Unframed. Tenesh Webber is a Canadian artist who works in abstract black and white photography. She lives and works ...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Passing Through 1 (Abstract photography)By Tenesh WebberLocated in London, GBPassing Through 1 (Abstract photography) Silver Gelatin Print - Unframed. Tenesh Webber is a Canadian artist who works in abstract black and white photography. She lives and works ...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Open, Photograph, Silver Hal/GelatinBy Katina DesmondLocated in Yardley, PAThis is an original hand-painted silver gelatin photograph, unique. Archival framing: four inch eight ply white mat, elegant black frame. Signed on mat and on verso. :: Photograph ...Category
Early 2000s Other Art Style Color Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Radius (Abstract photography)By Tenesh WebberLocated in London, GBRadius (Abstract photography) Silver Gelatin Print - Unframed. Tenesh Webber is a Canadian artist who works in abstract black and white photography. She lives and works in the New ...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Marea # 12, Photograph, Silver Hal/GelatinBy Pietro CanaliLocated in Yardley, PAMarea # 12 . Fort Lauderdale Beach, USA, 2013. Silver Halide Fuji Flex Crystal Archive paper printed with LightJet Oce 430, face mounted with 1/8†UV Tru-VU Clear Conservation Gra...Category
2010s Other Art Style Color Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Marea # 9, Photograph, Silver Hal/GelatinBy Pietro CanaliLocated in Yardley, PAMarea # 9 . Bermuda 2012. Silver Halide Fuji Flex Crystal Archive paper printed with LightJet Oce 430, face mounted with 1/8†UV Tru-VU Clear Conservation Grade Acrylic and backed...Category
2010s Other Art Style Color Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Kali Is an Art World Sensation, 40 Years after She Hid Her Work Away
A newly discovered trove of her kaleidoscopic works reveals that the enigmatic artist captured the zeitgeist of 1960s Southern California.
Inside the Bubble of Melvin Sokolsky
In the early 1960s, the photographer captured elegant models soaring through the air and floating in bubbles over Paris and New York. Now, we reveal the secrets behind his magical compositions.