Nassos Daphnis PIXEL
FIELDS
R I C H A R D TA I T T I N G E R G A L L E RY
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Nassos Daphnis PIXEL SEPT 16
FIELDS –
OCT 25,
2015
154 Ludlow Street, New York T +1 ( 212) 634-7154 richardtaittinger.com
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I n t ro d u c t i o n BY ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST
It was the winter of 1985. Nassos Daphnis was
image
getting an idea down on paper for a new
spokes, painted in enamel on canvas, explores
of
expanding
abstract work in his West Broadway studio.
the architectonics of the circle. 3-89 (1989)
The idea was burning bright, but his work
features
processes were painstaking, indeed finicky.
suggesting the pixilation that is a feature
He complained to his son, Demetri, about the
of low-resolution screens. The final sequence
endless frustration of being unable to render
interlocks oblongs to bring to birth what can
this Eureka! moment as swiftly as required.
be read as multiple cityscapes within an
bent
lines
circles
and
and
jagged
radiating
contours
infinite, virtual world. So. The son introduced the father to an Atari ST computer. Call this Eureka moment, Part II.
Daphnis was born in 1914 in Krockeai, near
Daphnis was seventy-one years old when he
Sparta, the Greek city historically famous for
booted up a computer for the first time and
its powerful military, its rigorous perfectionism,
he was soon conversant enough with the
and its proverbial austerity. Growing up, he
machine’s capacities to use it fluently in his
drew compulsively but had no exposure to
work. He was launched as a pioneer — one
art
of the very first artists to adapt the resources
He immigrated to New York with his family
of the new technology into the hitherto slow-
in
developing processes of painting.
received no formal training in art, apart from
whatsoever, 1930
when
aside he
from
was
church
sixteen.
icons.
Daphnis
random lessons, but began painting folksy Pixel Fields, a show of a body of work made
canvases,
between 1987 and 1992, which marks the repre-
and exhibited before serving in World War
based on
scenes of his youth,
sentation of the Estate of Nassos Daphnis by
II. Upon his return, his style began to evolve.
the Richard Taittinger Gallery, is unique within his
From outsiderish realism he moved into a
oeuvre and reveals him as a precursor to today’s
biomorphic
New Media artists. These twenty-two paintings
inflection. Then came his return to Greece
are remarkably diverse in their pictorial orga-
in 1952. His re-experience of the stark, clear
nization, but are alike in exploring the brave
Greek light was a revelation. “The glare of the
new world of computer-generated graphics.
sunlight against a certain form eliminated all
THE EXPLOSION 6-87 (1987), for instance, an
surface anomalies — I could see everything
abstraction
with
a
Surrealist
3
as one form.” 1 “In Greece you have this dry
Mondrian’s work as a point of departure.4
landscape…I would see everything flat, for
Beginning with a similarly strict palette of
instance, because the dazzling quality that
primary colors, he expanded upon it. What
everything
would become his signature style was the
had
and
the
form
would
just
disappear.” 2
result of constant experimentation with color, form, and materials. By the end of the 1950s,
This visionary experience — which it surely
his work was characterized by precision, sleek
was — gave birth to the development of
surfaces, and bold, pure color. Castelli gave
his
him seventeen solo exhibitions spanning nearly
color-plane
colors
no
theory.
It
was
longer illustrated
as
though
anything;
they
forty years and included his work in several
just were. Colors represented pure energies.
group exhibitions featuring Jasper Johns, Frank
Nassos Daphnis plunged headlong into the
Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, and Lee Bontecou.
hard-edged abstraction for which he would become known.
With regards to the work of Daphnis with the Atari computer, it proved to be a blessed
The primary colors that he chose, including
union. He gave very few of these pieces
black
different
descriptive titles. He preferred to use letters
energies Putting the color-plane theory into
and numerals to keep an objective focus on
practice required that he conceptually see
the paintings themselves. Beside these works,
the picture surface as a space, with 100
Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
planes, receding and advancing. Daphnis
(1950) or Donald Judd’s Untitled (1969) seem
explained his methodology thus: “I find that
grimly declarative.
and
white,
resonate
with
for me it works and I create all the space between the colors if I use them correctly…
Nassos Daphnis made the investigation and
One [plane] will go into space and the
application of his color-plane theory his life’s
other will come out from the space because
work. The Atari ST proved the perfect tool
of the right placement of one color to the
to take his investigations further. There have
other.” 3
been so many forms of flatness. There is the in-your-face flatness of a Matisse cut-out and
A note by the great gallerist Leo Castelli
the myriad forms of flatness advanced by
referred to Daphnis as “PM”, or Piet Mondrian.
Clement Greenberg and mocked by Tom Wolfe
Indeed,
in The Painted Word (1975). There is the soak
Daphnis
remarked
that
he
saw
Mary Anne Staniszewski, ARTnews, Summer, 1980. Nassos Daphnis, interview by Paul Cummings, “Oral History Interview with Nassos Daphnis,” Smithsonian Archives of American Art, April 9, 1968. 3 Ibid. 1
2
4
4
Ibid.
of the Color Field painters such Frank Stella,
was the year Warhol died. Very few artists from
Barnett
Motherwell.
that period would make tech an interesting
There is also the immaterial “Superflatness”
part of their practice. Nassos Daphnis did. His
that Takashi Murakami developed from anime
use of the Atari ST was a Promethean dip
and commercial printing.
into the new fire. But no vultures lurked. It
Newman,
and
Robert
went well for him. Ahead lay...oh, goodness! What
absolutely
The Computer Paintings of Albert Oehlen,
distinctive. His surfaces seduce. Differences
the pixelated abstractions of Cory Arcangel’s
of depth break up the surface — sometimes
Photoshop CS series. And on, on.
the
Nassos
paintwork
Daphnis
will
does
mimic
is
collage
—
and
the specific color of the blocks cause the planes to undulate with quasi-hypnotic effect.
Anthony Haden-Guest
And there is a very specific sense of scale.
August, 2015
Daphnis told his son how profoundly the sight of the Parthenon had affected him upon his
Anthony Haden-Guest is British-American writer,
first return to Greece. Looking at these abs-
reporter, cartoonist, and performer. He was
tractions here you can see how human their
born in 1937 in Paris and lives in New York and
dimensions are, how resonant of a cityscape.
London. In 1979, he was awarded a New York
And one further Greek thought comes to
Emmy for writing and narrating a documentary,
mind. Nassos Daphnis loved color, of course,
The Affluent Immigrants (sometimes less politely
but he loved blue in particular. Three blues,
known as Eurotrash) for PBS. His books include
actually, pale, medium, and dark: the blues
True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World, The
of the Mediterranean shallows, of the deeper
Last Party: Studio 54, Disco and the Culture
waters, and of the further-out depths. There
of the Night, and two books of cartoons and
is significance here. Nassos Daphnis used an
rhymes, The Chronicles of Now and In The Mean
Atari computer but he does not surrender
Time.
himself to the giddy possibilities of tech. He used tech to make very human art. According to anecdotal history, in 1987 Steve Jobs met Andy Warhol at a party and presented him with an Apple Macintosh. That, of course,
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P i xe l Pa i n t i n g BY DEMETRI
DAPHNIS
It was during the winter of 1985, when I was
I mentioned to him that he could do his
spending the night at my father’s Soho art
studies on the computer and in seconds, could
loft, that I was awakened by loud noises.
change the position of the lines or change
It was Nassos — abruptly descending the
the colors.
steep wooden stairs from his bed. He was searching for a sketchpad and his precious
“Oh come on!” he said with his thick Greek
color markers.
accent. “I don’t believe it.”
Blurry-eyed
from
the
glaring
overhead
fluorescent lights, I asked my dad what the commotion
was
about.
Excitedly,
“No, really, you could do that,” I replied. With great excitement he said, “Show me now!”
Nassos
explained that he couldn’t sleep. He had a
I tried to delay — it was 4 AM! I went
new idea for his next series of paintings. It
back to sleep wondering how many sons
was one of Nassos’ eureka moments and
are awakened by their father for an artistic
nothing would stop him from putting his vision
vision at 3 AM? Probably not many. That
down on paper, despite it being 3 AM. Luckily
morning, a loud bang on the door woke me
for me, I was accustomed to Nassos’ eureka
up again. Of course, it was Nassos yelling at
moments as this had been going on since my
me to get up and show him what he could
early childhood.
do with his ideas on the computer. “Okay, Okay, I’m getting up,” I yelled back. “In five
For the next hour, I intently watched this
minutes!”
man — who was then over seventy years old — excitedly put his vision down on paper.
“In five minutes? That’s all I hear from you. Get
Quickly, however, he became frustrated that
up now!” Nassos yelled emphatically. Bang,
he couldn’t capture it all as quickly as he
bang on the door again and again.
wanted — he wanted to be able to rapidly change the color of a shape or the density
I quickly booted up the Atari ST to show
of a line. Inspired by his vision, Nassos would
Nassos how he could manipulate lines and
soon embark on a new series of paintings.
forms
on
the
computer
screen. The
3.5“
7
floppy disk drive
humming.
For the next few weeks, I showed Nassos the
For the next five hours you could not have
ins and outs of using the Atari. He became
pulled
for
a whiz at manipulating his geometric forms
anything. Nassos was a kid again, exploring
with the same precision with which he had
a
mastered his massive canvas paintings.
him
new
away
world
of
slowly started from strange
that
screen
looking
shapes
called pixels and colorful, vibrating computer screens. He was hooked. He loved the instant
During
manipulation of color and form that this new
digital series, I passed the time sitting in front
the
time
Nassos
was
creating
his
type of visual media — encapsulated in this
of his massive paintings in the loft. I was
tiny Atari computer — gave him. This Atari,
like a doctor on call — there for any tech
with its 512 KB of memory, had opened up
emergency. I stared at the paintings and shut
entirely new avenues for him to explore and
out the noisy world around me. At times, the
create. Nassos was in geometric heaven!
colors jumped out at me as I meditated and I became one with Nassos’ visual concep-
I apologized to him that the Atari only had
tualization. Looking at his paintings was an
a palette of sixty-four colors. I was used
optical experience — his pure primary colors
to the millions of colors on the DEC PDP-11
popped and floated into a 3D space over the
mini-computer on which I did my own artwork,
2D surface of the canvas.
and which filled up half of a huge refrigerated
room
This
Those were exceptional days for a son and
state-of-the-
his father and we became closer as I shared
art CG software worth more than a million
this part of Nassos’ artistic journey. I can
dollars, while the Atari ST came in at under a
never forget those
thousand dollars.
seeing
mini-computer
in
mid-town
had
Manhattan.
advanced
Nassos
jump
days
in
right
the into
mid-‘80s, this
new,
exciting digital world and create graphics “Oh,
the
with the glee of a ten year old. Some of
four primary colors,“ Nassos said proudly.
those same computer images would later
He was absolutely delighted and together
manifest themselves in the large, powerful
we were both falling in love with that little
paintings
beige Atari.
Leo Castelli Gallery at 420 West Broadway.
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no
problem.
I
only
paint
with
that
adorned
the
walls
of
the
Some I now have the privilege of seeing exhibited for the first time in this exhibition at Richard Taittinger Gallery, Pixel Fields. Creating geometric art on that Atari computer was Nassos’ video game. It was a game he played with the precision and exactitude that seamlessly manifested in his hard-edge canvas paintings. Looking back now, 30 years later, Nassos was as much an early pioneer of pixel painting as he was of hard-edge geometric abstraction; always striving for the perfect balance of color and form and not giving up until he found it.
Demetri Daphnis August, 2015
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THE EXPLOSION 6-87 1987 Enamel on canvas 76.125 x 92.125 in. / 193.4 x 234 cm.
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GENESIS 7-87 1987 Enamel on canvas 76.125 x 92.125 in. / 193.4 x 234 cm.
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MYSTICAL PRESENCE 9-87 1987 Enamel on canvas 84 x 96 in. / 213.4 x 243.8 cm.
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REVERENCE 10-87 1987 Enamel on canvas 84 x 96 in. / 213.4 x 243.8 cm.
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EVOLVING SPHERES - REVERBERATION 1987 Enamel on canvas 48 x 69.75 in. / 121.9 x 177.2 cm.
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6-88 1988 Enamel on canvas 45.125 x 55 in. / 114.6 x 139.7 cm.
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PALACE OF MINOS 10-88 1988 Enamel on canvas 45.125 x 55 in. / 114.6 x 139.7 cm.
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1-89 1989 Oil on canvas 36 x 44 in. / 91.4 x 111.8 cm.
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3-89 1989 Oil on canvas 36.125 x 44.125 in. / 91.8 x 112.1 cm.
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7-89 1989 Oil on canvas 36 x 44.125 in. / 91.4 x 112.1 cm.
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12-89 1989 Oil on canvas 36.125 x 44.125 in. / 91.8 x 112.1 cm.
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1-90 1990 Oil on canvas 36.125 x 44.125 in. / 91.8 x 112.1 cm.
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2-90 1990 Oil on canvas 36.125 x 44 in. / 91.8 x 111.8 cm.
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3-90 1990 Oil on canvas 36 x 44.125 in. / 91.4 x 112.1 cm.
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7-90 1990 Oil on canvas 24.125 x 30 in. / 61.3 x 76.2 cm.
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10-90 1990 Oil on canvas 24.25 x 30.125 in. / 61.6 x 76.5 cm.
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3-A-92 1992 Oil on canvas 18.25 x 24.25 in. / 46.4 x 61.6 cm.
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9-A-92 1992 Oil on canvas 18.125 x 24.125 in. / 46 x 61.3 cm.
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10-A-92 1992 Oil on canvas 18.25 x 24.125 in. / 46.4 x 61.3 cm.
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AE 2-92 1992 Oil on canvas 36.25 x 45.125 in. / 92.1 x 114.6 cm.
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AE 4-92 1992 Oil on canvas 36.25 x 45 in. / 92.1 x 114.3 cm.
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AE 11-92 1992 Oil on canvas 24.125 x 30.25 in. / 61.3 x 76.8 cm.
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Photograph by Arthur Mones, 1980.
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Nassos Daphnis B. 1 9 1 4 – D. 2 0 1 0
AWA R D S 1986
1977 1966
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award The Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Award Guggenheim Fellowship, NY National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities Award
1969
1967
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1964 1995 1993
1990 1985 1973 1969
1959
Nassos Daphnis: Energies in Outer Space, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY Nassos Daphnis Color and Form: A Retrospective, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH Thirty-Years With Leo Castelli, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY The Continuous Painting, 1975, And Other Works, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY Nassos Daphnis Retrospective 1958–1972, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY Nassos Daphnis Work Since 1951, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY Nassos Daphnis, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1997
1986
1982
1970
40 Years of Exploration and Innovation Part 2 Daphnis, Kelly, Judd, Stella, Waldman, Therrien, Serra, Flavin, Morris, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY American Abstract Artists 50th Anniversary Celebration, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY Castelli and His Artists: Twenty-Five Years, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA; Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Aspen, CO; Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Portland, OR; Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX Pittsburgh International, Pittsburgh International Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art)
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1961
1959
1952
31st Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C 10th Anniversary Exhibition: Artschwager, Bontecou, Chamberlain, Daphnis, Higgins, Johns, Judd, Lichtenstein, Morris, Poons, Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Scarpitta, Stella, Twombly, Warhol, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Geometric Abstraction in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 64th American Exhibition Paintings Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL American Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY Opening Exhibition of the New Gallery: Bluhm, Brach, Daphnis, Johns, Kohn, Rauschenberg, Sander, Scarpitta, Stella, Twombly, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Pittsburgh International, Pittsburgh International Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art)
SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA Guggenheim Museum, NY Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY Museum of Modern Art, NY Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
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R I C H A R D TA I T T I N G E R G A L L E R Y
Richard Taittinger Gallery opened in March 2015 at 154 Ludlow Street. Embracing its prime location in the Lower East Side, the gallery provides a foundation that supports the presentation of work by artists with significant global recognition. An international forum for new ideas in contemporary art, Richard Taittinger Gallery presents an ambitious program dedicated to cultivating a critical dialogue between artists, viewers, and institutions. With the addition of Nassos Daphnis, the gallery expands upon its mission to bring to light pioneers of new ideas in contemporary art by presenting museum-quality exhibitions with strong conceptual basis.
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Published by Richard Taittinger Gallery in conjunction with the exhibition Pixel Fields Sept 17 - Oct 25, 2015 INSIDE FRONT COVER Nassos Daphnis 3-89 (detail), 1989 Oil on canvas, 36.06 x 44.06 in. (91.6 x 111.9 cm) INSIDE BACK COVER Nassos Daphnis THE EXPLOSION 6-87 (detail), 1987 Enamel on canvas, 76.125 x 92.125 in. (193.4 x 234 cm) PHOTO CREDITS Photography by Adam Reich All images © Daphnis Studio and Artist Rights Society Except as noted Courtesy of Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York E S S AY S All text © the author Introduction by Anthony Haden-Guest Pixel Painting by Demetri Daphnis DESIGN Danielle Wu
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