A Place Called Space

Saturday, 25 May 2019

The shock of the green

It's always a shock (an extremely pleasant one) at first when we come back to the UK, being reminded how green everything is. Particularly at this time of year. This is the time when everything comes alive, new shoots, leaves, and blooms everywhere. It's a glorious time of year.

This was my first walk since we got back, and I did my usual: the Mill Gardens and then Jephson Park in Leamington. This is a view of the river in the Mill Gardens.

The iris by the river bed are just starting to bloom

zooming in.

The view from the bridge that connects the two parks

and the other side.

I always think this as the blue and purple time of year for flowers

First clematis

looking closer.

The poppies are out as well

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Demosthenis Skoulakis -A Retrospective: Rewritings

Demosthenis Skoulakis - A Retrospective: Rewritings,

at the Benaki, Pireos, Athens.

We had such fun looking at these paintings!

'One of Modernism's later children, as I grew up, I felt unbearably smothered by the embrace of … my father. I felt it was an obstacle to my artistic development, as it suggested old, commonplace ideas under 'new' but recognisable masks. Thus a need for a definitive clearing of accounts slowly started being born within me. The emotional equivalent of Freud's 'murder of the father'.

But, despite the awareness of the need for 'patricide', I was still tied to him. Still fascinated by the glamour of the adventure and myths of modernism, the idea of 'murder' was made not only cumbersome and painful, but also impossible in its realisation.

In the summer of 1977, looking at a photo of Duchamp's Fountain, I felt I was at a starting point, except that my path was in the opposite direction. I painted again the Fountain … Urinal! The 'father' was finally DEAD. My goal is not to 'hit' the painting of the century, but the critical view and review of all the elements that were distorted or lost in 80 years'.

Iris and Goldfish (Van Gogh - Matisse), 2002, (oil on canvas)

The Players, 2000, (oil and collage on paper)

The Gamble and the Myth of Images II, 1998, (oil on canvas)

Variation on Chardin's House of Cards II, 2000, (oil on canvas)

The Gamble and Myth of Images (The Lithographs of Toulouse Lautrec), 2001, (oil on canvas)

July 27th 1890, 1998, (oil on canvas)

The Fountain or What Intervened Between Ingres and Duchamp, 1997-98, (oil on canvas)

Duchamp as … the Mona Lisa, 1998, (oil on canvas)

Piss-Art, 1998, (oil on canvas)

David and Goliath II, 1997-2001, (oil on canvas)

Duchamp and the Bicycle Wheel, 1998, (oil on canvas)

Anatomy Lesson on Picasso Cubistic Nude, 1999, (oil on canvas)

Variation on Guernica in Relation to the US War in Iraq, 2003, (oil on canvas)

The Art of Painting up until the … Boogie-Woogie, 1999, (oil on canvas)

The Lace Maker II, 2000, (oil on canvas)

The Lace Maker I, 2000, (oil on canvas)

Sphinx - Homage to Francis Bacon, 1998, (oil on canvas)

Warhol Soup, 1997-98, (oil on canvas)

The Unknown Dead, (variation on Mategna), 2001, (oil on canvas)

The Modernisation of War, 1999, (oil on canvas)

Orthodox Interior, (Pierro de la Francesca - Erro), 2001-02, (oil on canvas)

Homage to Frida Kahlo, 1997, (oil on canvas)

Monday, 20 May 2019

Demosthenis Skoulakis - A Retrospective: Portraits and Underground Routes

Demosthenis Skoulakis, A Retrospective: Portraits and Underground Routes

at the Benaki Museum, Pireos Avenue, Athens.

Portraits:

'By the end of 1984, my story with alcohol is over. It took four hard years and a tough detoxification struggle to stand back on my feet. It is no accident that by cutting out the drink, I gradually began to love myself and others. It was then that the portraits were born. The return from alcoholism to the self-esteem of detoxification, resembles the return from dark to light. I work with amazing intensity. My work is evolving rapidly. Every day I stop painting only when my feet no longer support me... From Moralis I learned to see the essence of painting, beyond the trends, effects, useless textures and great peaks. 'The more significant a painting, the more likely it is made with the simplest means', he said and gave Rembrandt or Cezanne as an example'.

My Own Athina, 1988, (oil on canvas)

Comrade Alexis No. II, 1986, (oil on canvas)

The Young Killer, 1986, (oil on canvas)

Athina, 1986, (oil on canvas)

Self-Portrait, 1990, (oil on canvas)

The Painter, 1989, (oil on canvas)

The Teacher, Yannis Moralis, 1990-92, (oil on canvas)

The Transparency of Age, 1988, (oil on canvas)

Actors, 1985, (oil on canvas)

Actress with Scarred Face, 1990, (oil on canvas)

The Dancer, 1991, (oil on canvas)

The Dancer, 1991, (oil on canvas and nickel)

Yannis Tsarouhis, 1989, (oil on canvas)

The Hands of Yannis Tsarouchis, 1989, (oil on canvas)

Yannis Tsarouchis in the Neon Café, 1989, (oil on canvas)

Homage to Yannis Tsarouhis, 1982, (oil on canvas)

Underground Routes:

'In May 1993, a taxi strike forces me to descend the stairs of the 'underground railway'. It had been many years since I used the 'underground' and this descent made me feel like ... Odysseus in Hades. A forgotten, unknown and, at the same time, familiar world was revealed to my eyes. I was surprised at the intense need to paint this 'underworld'.

Within these paintings, the process that every passenger needs to undergo is recorded... During the journey, I record the inner labyrinths of the stations while at the same time emphasizing the intense interchange between light and darkness. Journey, both artistically and symbolically, is internal. It concerns the common destiny of people (death). And, additionally, life'.