Angelos Spartalis - Calender - August 2001 Exhibition

aaaa	aaaa	Solo exhibition "Reflections - The philosophy of blue" Cultural Center of Astypalea, Astypalea 4-31 AUGUST 2001 text also available in Greek aa		a
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aaa	aaaa	Humans into an empty room, with an intense red carpet, an open-sky roof and a characteristic red & yellow sofa on the background, are looking at themselves through "mirrors".The results are definitely unexpected... a		a
	a	Realistic and surrealistic contradictions...	a	a
	aaaa	Introduction The text that follows is written by the art historian Polly Hatzimarkou, as an introduction to the exhibition catalogue The philosophy of blue is a landmark in the artistic venture of Spartalis. The text parallel and inseparably related to the new paintings of the "Reflections" series, brings out -as a starting and reference point- his theory on art, the idea, the communication, the human, you and me. His work functions as a means of escape to a field of unknown limits; a field that is suitable for a reassessment of aesthetics as well as for an exploration of the substance of painting.		a
	a	__above: __"Self-portrait & model" __2001, 90x120xm, oil on canvas __left: __Details from the artwork __"Self-portrait & model" __The "Real" (on the left) __and the "Reflected" model (on the right).		a
	a	The things he wants to express have been conceived some time now. He manages to put across those in at both of his arts, writing and painting. With a maniac passion he wants to record the existence into words and icons. Tools for this process are his paint-brushes and notes. He "speaks" with the oil-paints, he "illustrates" with his word-inventions. Extreme? Could be. Revolutionary? Perhaps. Definitely free in his -very own- autonomous thought and will. In 1999 he wrote: "...I will be thinking without existing, I will be drawing, I will be my thought and pencils..." (illustrated poem "The self-lit light"). More recently: "...after maniac thought I won't have other philosophy than the blue color and with the philosophy of blue I will have explained the world [...] I will ram this worthless solar system of ours where it hurts, I will be dead in the sun" (theatrical monologue "The round river"). In the philosophy of blue he comes back, defines himself and concludes that "...using all languages of art, [...] I am able to think, feel and talk to you about the whole.[...] I am free!". In order to set himself free, he uses arbitrarily his own language of art that is symbolized by isochromatic relations. This innovative invention is his personal solution to the problem of communication (internal and external).		a
	a	In painting, particularly, he strives to depict its supremacy, considering important the rejection of any sort of categorization. Therefore, he sets a concept model that produces visual equations (as he considers himself a suppressed theoretical mathematician!). The parts of Spartalis's equations are connected with isochromatic relations, not with equality. In those equations he dispels the myth of -isms (modernism, post-modernism...) and the disputes of those, regarding art as a whole, without discontinuities. He creates art "deriving directly from color" (Goethe), never-ending games of being - being represented, of pictures and reflection images, an art which is anthropocentric, elaborating his visual motives on a primitive level.		a
	a	*above:__ "Reflection"__ 2001, 90x120xm, oil on canvas__ right:*__ Details from the artwork__ "Reflection"__ The "Real" (on the left)__ and the "Reflected" woman with the cat (on the right).__		a
	a	At the latest exhibition of Spartalis, under the auspices of the Museum of Modern Greek Art (Rhodes, March 2001), works that symbolized translucently the tragic state of man in our contemporary times, were presented. Those were distorted, spiral-like figures, an instinctively violent iconography. In the series "Reflections" he continues where he left off, this time arranging in each of the paintings the co-existence of realistic and surreal, inarticulate figures. The first ones are the reflections of the second.		a
	a	The "unconstitutional" figures are placed in the "natural environment" of the canvas, while their mirror images are within mirrors, other canvases, photo frames. Here, the isochromatic relations of the philosophy of blue are recognizable again: - "isolation" "dead end corridor without a roof" "sofa" - "me" "you" "not mirror" "scribbles" The world, that we are conscious of, is a representation on a mirror; the latter reflects a representation of another mirror and so on. It is like a "mimetic drama in which the subject can locate his/her hysterical pleasure", as R. Barthes wrote. The reflection of the reflection, the malformation of the malformation, finally leads to the real meaning and true form. That is the mechanism that Spartalis deals with in his writing and painting.		a
	a	__above: __"World War 2" __2001, 90x120xm, oil on canvas __left: __Detail from the artwork __"World War 2" __The "Reflected" Hitler.		a
		With the same mechanism, I draw a parallel between the final isochromatic relation in the philosophy of blue and the following poem extract by Yeats: "Empty eyeballs knew/ That knowledge increases unreality, that/ Mirror on mirror mirrored is all the show", therefore: - "malformation" "not form" "not not malformation". That's the philosophy of blue. Polly Hatzimarkou Art Historian Curator of the Museum of Modern Greek Art
	aaaa	*List of presented artworks* Paintings		a
		1. Self-portrait & model 2001 ___90 x 120 cm, oil on canvas 2. Reflection 2001 ___90 x 120 cm, oil on canvas 3. Worl War 2 2001 ___90 x 120 cm, oil on canvas
		4. Modigliani & model 2001 ___120 x 90 cm, oil on canvas 5. Tracey's reflection 2001 ___120 x 90 cm, oil on canvas 6. Self-portrait & girlfriend 2001 ___120 x 90 cm, oil on canvas
		illustrations (20 parts from the following illustrations) 1. Self-illuminated light 1998 ___10 parts, 12x16 cm, acrylic on paper 2. Aphrodite 1999 ___10 parts, 12x16 cm, acrylic on paper 3. Standing Man 1998 ___6 parts, 12x16 cm, acrylic on paper
		4. Troades 1999 ___6 parts, 12x16 cm, acrylic on paper 5. Desire 1999 ___6 parts, 12x16 cm, acrylic on paper 6. Death 1999 ___7 parts, 12x16 cm, acrylic on paper
		7. The inner harbour 1999 ___7 parts, 25x35 cm, acrylic on paper 8. Blue poems 2000 ___14 parts, 10x14 cm, oil-pastel on paper 9. Hedonistic Poems 2000 ___14 parts, 10x14 cm, oil-pastel on paper
	aaaa	*Press Articles & Remarks* Local 1. newspaper "PROODOS", 04/08/01 (1 photo) 2. newspaper "PROODOS", 23/08/01 (2 photo) 2. newspaper "KASTELORIZIAKA NEA", Sep.2001 National 1. newspaper "TO VIMA", 19/08/01 (1 photo) 2. newspaper "ELEFTHEROTIPIA", 21/08/01 3. newspaper "TO VIMA", 26/08/01		a
	a	newspaper "TO VIMA", 19/08/01 *Photographs* Art happening during the exhibition in Astypalea: Painting the artwork "Full moon in Astypalea" (3x3m, acrylics) on the wall of the "Panorama" Bar.		a
	aaaa	more information on... The philosophy of blue published: Astypalea, August 2001 pages: 36 (8 color)		a
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