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angelos spartalis

CHRIST  RE-CRUCIFIED

painting

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text also available in Greek
 

the exhibition in ART-ATHINA 2014

..THE PAINTINGS

ALL WORKS ARE SIGNED WITH THE ARTISTS INITIALS AT THE FRONT AND SIGNED WITH HIS FULL NAME AND DATED AT THE BACK.
THE TITLE OF THE EXHIBITION “CHRIST RE-CRUCIFIED” IS A REFERENCE TO NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS.
THE TWO ACROBATS ON THE UPPER PART OF THE WORKS “CHRIST RE-CRUCIFIED” AND "RESURRECTION" ARE A REFERENCE TO THE ACROBATIC THEATRE DONKA, COMPAGNIA FINZI PASCA & CHEKHOV INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, 2010.
THE DIAMOND-COVERED SKULL IN THE MIDDLE PART OF THE WORK “CHRIST RE-CRUCIFIED”  IS A REFERENCE TO DAMIEN HIRST.
THE PAINTING “THE BODY OF CHRIST” IS A REFERENCE TO HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER.
THE PAINTING “THE CAPTURE OF CHRIST” IS A REFERENCE TO CARAVAGGIO AND ALTDORFER.
THE PAINTING “THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS #2” IS A REFERENCE TO REMBRANDT.
THE FRAMES OF THE WORKS “THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS #1” AND “ATOMIC BOMB TEST #3” WERE MANUFACTURED BY DIMITRIS PSOMODOTIS.
 

See here complete list of the artworks.

EXHIBITIONS

15 - 18 MAY 2014
Titanium Yiayiannos Gallery, ART-ATHINA
 

..DOCUMENTS

THE YOUTH OF ANTIKYTHERA
[ text also available in Greek ]

It’s the last days of September. I lock the door of my studio in Crete and leave for Athens holding the diptych “Louigi dressed and Louigi not dressed” in my arms. Destination: the National Archaeological Museum! In the area surrounding the Museum, a couple is laying on the pavement. It’s two junkies in love. To laugh and to cry for... a mess. He is holding her tight by the hand .I smile at them. They don’t give a shit. I enter through the back door, at Tositsa street, and after crossing some corridors, offices and still more corridors, I bump into Manos. Stefanidis is preparing an exhibition entitled "Offer", presenting works by contemporary artists interspersed among the antiquities. Not in a different room – as if they were outcasts – but AMONG the exhibits. An uneven confrontation, to be honest, but a confrontation no less.

Mr. Professor doesn't say much, he just nods at a guard to take me further into the building. He is in a trance and comes and goes hastily, surely under the spell of what Koundouros accurately calls “Holy Randiness”. The guard leads me to the room where my painting will be exhibited. Walking down more corridors and side corridors I find myself, without realizing it, in the exhibition room. I stand still, obeying the guard’s orders, while I wait for him to return.

I'm all alone. The Museum is still closed. A cold, soft light comes from above. Opposite me there are some wonderful wooden showcases with gold jewelry. The smell of bureaucracy is gone but there’s something more: a presence hovering behind and over my head, beautiful and menacing at the same time. That is awe. I raise my head slowly and cautiously to see - in all its capturing beauty - the famous… Τhe Youth of Antikythera! At that very moment I decide to paint him the moment the opportunity presents itself. The guard has to call at me three times in order to bring me back to his world. He is pissed off. As I see him walking hurriedly in front of me, I'm thinking of tripping him up. In my imagination, I go for it, and then I burst into laughter. He throws me a look just like a jailer would to a convict.

In just a couple of minutes the diptych is placed next to an ancient trunk. Immediately, the first group of Japanese tourists starts taking pictures. They photograph both the trunk and the painting. Together. Dozens of photos in just a few seconds. I am very excited. The junkies, the dark offices, the mouldy corridors, the light, the youth... especially the youth. The trunk and right next to it, Louigi, proud among so many antiquities. I am standing in a daze, proud too. This is how the painting “The Youth of Antikythera” was conceptualized. I painted it right after my arrival to Crete, in October 2013.

Angelos Spartalis
November 2013
Agios Nikolaos, Crete
 

P.S.1   At first, the exhibition was not received in the way we had, in our naïve minds, anticipated. The curator as well as the artists became the target of all those who set themselves against anything they deem to be controversial. Moreover, shortly before the inauguration, some works - mine also – were taken down in the pretext of offending the Ancient Beauty or something along those lines. In the end, cooler heads prevailed (after a bit of a dustup, I imagine) and the works returned victorious.

P.S.2   My brave friend Luigi vexes them because in his little body those bastards see their real self. Go for it, we will win, I love you.
Sent:
21:38:32
30/09/2013
Message delivered
MANOS STEFANID
6972994xxx

P.S.3   Our exhibition shall be over by now, but the antiquities will always be there, in peace. Visit the Archaeological Museum. Take your kids, too. And if you don’t have kids, you should!
 

FROM THE EARTH... BACK TO THE EARTH AGAIN
[ text also available in Greek and  French ]

Do not read me if you haven’t flown a kite on Clean Monday.
Do not read me if you don’t know any past perfect...
Nikos Karouzos

That lad, Angelos, will drive me crazy! First, I was fascinated by his award winning film "From the Earth to the Moon", a moving poem that flies me to the skies of imagination and then, he throws me back to reality and to the question : "What is painting today?" All the more so, by showing me a series of enthralling paintings in which the virtuosity of the execution competes with the noble-mindedness of the conception. In this new series entitled "Christ Re-Crucified" there is more than the artist's effort to settle old scores with the 70s, the symbols, the myths, the star system or its multilevel picture-making. There is also the artist’s decision to paint a timeless comedia divina commencing with the Death by Crucifixion on Mount Calvary and ending with the dead body of Che, with his eyes open and so vivid. In between there are falls and rises, the beggars and the rulers of the world, Holbein and Columbus, as well as the anonymous people if it weren’t for whom, no one would know the lives and stories of the famous ones.

How am I to explain to Angelos that what he does, that is an enchanting acrobatics between painting and cinema, moving and static images, the techniques of collage and montage, is exactly what I am trying to teach - I’m afraid not with great success – at the university; a lesson in visual conscience, and a presentation of aesthetics as a way of life. An uphill battle in insensitive times. For it is not the students whom I actually seek to teach, who still indulge in the presumption of innocence, but their parents, my generation with its mistakes. All those who hide behind a faux art and a spurious culture in which false has long ago ostracized true and original is jeered as dangerous.

Fancy lawyers-collectors who buy paintings passing bad checks while laurel-crowned poets and intellectuals acknowledge establishment-serving journalists who have decided to wash away their sins in the doggerel of mere striplings. And all this is praised within the walls of the new Acropolis Museum in the presence of high-ranking politicians. In this country appearances always triumph over essence. This - and much more - is what Angelos is painting in an implied and penetrating way. This is what he is talking about. For those who can appreciate it…

Spartalis’ art, a géniale effort that brings together painting and cinema as well as the Greek way of doing things and the international avant-garde, stands out although it is not subsidized by a bank or supported by the Ministry of Culture. It’ a safe bet: Spartalis' art won’t be exhibited in the National Museum of Contemporary Art. Instead the museum will exhibit the work of those in charge. For contemporary Greek art often resembles a silent wild river running literally under the feet of the “officials” and the “connoisseurs”. Just as well!

Manos Stefanides
Tinos, Easter Monday 2014

P.S.   Our era is full of empty self-complacency. We are proud we have seen Bob Wilson’s work. But imagine that, in the end of the 15th century, the Dutch villagers were able to watch the "Mysteries", the religious representations by the monks of the "Illustre Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady" illustrated by Hieronimus Bosch. The latter made a living by completing/finishing his father’s, Anthonius van Aken, unfinished paintings, at the same time Jorge Manuel did the same for El Greco. Reverse genius, adverse course. May the future, whatever it may hold, vindicate Angelos’ efforts (not Akotantos, but our Angelos). And this, mostly because he is dreaming of the future in terms of history without underestimating or ignoring the past. In other words, loving and exploiting every single way in which yesterday inseminates tomorrow..
 

CHRIST RE-CRUCIFIED
[ text also available in Greek ]

This painting of my son ("Christ Re-Crucified") is special and unique. One needs to approach it as if it was a modernist poem. When I first saw it in his studio, I felt the urge to write. It was a first. Until now my lack of knowledge in plastic arts prevented me from doing so, but this time it was different. Any inhibition I might have had was gone. It goes without saying that the opinions expressed are purely personal and reflect my own aesthetic criteria.

Jesus Christ has suffered the excruciating pain of Crucifixion. He lies in the upper part of the painting, dead, with eyes half closed and sorrowful. His arms and legs, wounded, witness His sacrifice for the salvation of humans. The two thieves are suspended on each side of the holy body, in a desperate effort to escape their agony; with an obstinacy that would befit circus acrobats they are trying to burst their fetters. This picture brings to my mind the image of the everyday man who struggles to rid himself of his troubles, but is constantly oscillating between the “should” and the “want”, forced upon him.

In the modern world, the world of the “circus”, the spectacle of the Gypsy with a mandolin on his chest and a tame bear strikes a jarring note. In the middle of the painting, the old Gypsy man is wondering almost indifferently in the shadow of the Cross accompanied by a scrawny dog, which on a lower part of the painting, is looking for food. It is in our world, so satiated with waste, where Los Olvidados are searching for food among the leftovers of the rich.

On the Gypsy’s left side there is a beautiful sheep that stands for the innocent look in the eyes of those who see life through the perspective of our long lost innocence. Scenes from Jesus Christ’s early life where He is represented among a herd of sheep, - "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" as well as among little children, - "Let the little children come to me".

The sculls on the ground bear testimony to the origins of the deceased. On the Gypsy’s right, the diamond skull of the rich yet mortal owner, lies higher than the rest, in a conspicuous spot, but in vain. "Which indeed is he that is king? Or which is soldier? Which is the wealthy, which is the needy?" Oh, the bitter irony! Death equates all men.

On the lower part of the painting, the archaeologists’ tools are evidence of man's effort to discover what the past has withheld from him and to find a solid ground on which to stand. On the left, an arrow points to the North and on the right, a ladder functions as a ruler measuring the centimeters. The modern man torments himself lingering between faith and uncertainty, also over his convictions, his deeds, his wishes and by the prospect of a better world. And above the pointing arrow, below the hind legs of the dog, thrown away among the bones, lies the Antikythera Mechanism. An allusion to the knowledge accumulated by man over the centuries, just so that he throws it away in the blink of an eye. A Library of Alexandria going up in flames, once again.

The hungry dog… the millions of people who live in misery. The diamond skull… the vanity of the rich and unwise. The two thieves… the anguish of modern man to find an equilibrium. The Gypsy, who apathetically goes about his business… our society that reproduces inequalities. The saddened Jesus… the desperation of man when his sacrifices fall through.

There where people are tortured, there where Jesus Christ is crucified again and again. And every single time the thief is heard whispering...
"Jesus, remember me…"

Maria Karofyllaki-Spartalis
November 2013
Agios Nikolaos, Crete

Note 1   My mother did not write this text thinking it would be included in the catalogue. Actually, when I told her that it would be included, she had strong objections about it being published. But, alas if the only son of a Cretan woman listened to his mother!

Note 2   My mother and my father wanted me to become an engineer. It was them who forced me to finish the Technical University (God bless them) and I handed them my degree and went on my way (like a stubborn mule). We were not on speaking terms for years. The first attempt to approach one another took place when my first daughter was born. The first time I told my mother I loved her was when I put the baby in her arms. Today, my daughter is in 3rd grade and I have yet to repeat these words to my mother. The second approach took place when my second daughter was born. That was when my father and I made our peace. An unstable peace, but a peace still. And now, with this text, and my cunning mother's admission that her stubborn son finally succeeded to move her with his art, the third and final reconciliation has undoubtedly taken place. It’s been almost thirty year that we’ve been fighting, mom. I’m tired of disappointing you and dad and now all of a sudden, I've been absolved. I love you a lot; but let's not say it all the time... right?

PHOTOS

from the exhibition in ART-ATHINA 2014

from Angelos Spartalis's painting studio, Crete

outside Angelos Spartalis's painting studio, Eksarhia, Athens