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OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2018 The bimonthly electronic journal of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
Cover: Dimitris Mytaras, Five Roads
EDITORIAL TEAM Paraskevi Gerolymatou, Andreas Georgiadis, Marie Koutsomallis-Moreau, Alexandra Papakostopoulou, Klio Panourgias Designed and edited by
Τ 210 - 7252896 www.moca-andros.gr | www.goulandris.gr
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
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D I M I T R I S M Y TA R A S
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I N S I D E T H E F O U N D AT I O N ' S P E R M A N E N T C O L L E C T I O N
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RETROSPECTS IN TIME OF THE ANDROS MUSEUM
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By Kyriakos Koutsomallis, Director of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
Tribute to the summer’s periodic exhibition
Dimitris Mytaras, Five Roads
Henry De Toulouse Lautrec, Woman as Myth
C U LT U R A L A G E N D A
Presentation of important art exhibition from around the world
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IN PLACE OF A PROLOGUE
On occasion of the twenty-second electronic issue of our visitors’ update, we wish to express our gratitude for their trust and the loyalty with which they follow our events. Firstly, we would like to inform you that the exhibition dedicated to the distinguished painter and charismatic teacher Dimitris Mytaras closed on 30 September and was as successful as it deserved. Media commentary was universally positive and visitor numbers reached unprecedented heights. The tribute, a year after Dimitris Mytaras’ death, was a fitting commitment of remembrance and thanks to the artist who, for over half a century dedicated his life to painting and teaching. The success of the exhibition was equal to the historic, artistic and technical significance of this work. In this issue, we are inaugurating a series of retrospective articles dedicated to some of the greatest artists who carved new paths and definitively influenced the art of the previous century, and have been presented at the Andros Museum (Picasso, Klée, Giacometti, Rodin, Braque, Miró, Moore, and others, as well as Greeks including Moralis, Tetsis, Engonopoulos, and others). In this issue, the retrospective is dedicated to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the greatest artists of his era, who has been described as ‘the painter who painted women’. Kyriakos Koutsomallis Director
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EXHIBITION MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART - ANDROS
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FROM THE CONTEMPORARY TO THE TIMELESS 1 JULY – 30 SEPTEMBER 2018
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In the summer of 2018, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation will be organizing a tribute to the distinguished, multifarious and particularly popular with the Greek public, Dimitris Mytaras. The main characteristic of Dimitris Mytaras’ painting is the coexistence of contradictory elements which are skillfully intertwined to create the paradoxicality that runs through his entire fertile and creative artistic course. Poetry is expressed alongside violence, lyricism with brutality, pleasure with coarseness… His work is complex but also original, authentic and multifaceted and evolved over almost sixty years, as long as Mytaras’ creative career; he served his art with absolute dedication, exploring and highlighting with subjectivity and singularity the way he perceived the world around him. Apart from a distinguished and popular painter, he was also a poet, talented stage and costume designer, illustrator, designer of decorative representations and charismatic teacher. The aim of this tribute is to highlight both his thematic multilateralism and his technical diversity and dexterity. The organizational structure of the tribute begins with his early youthful period which is characterized by an impressive maturity. It continues with two themes which preoccupied him from the beginning of the 1960s until his death: mirrors and portraits. The next section opens up an entirely new path: the imposition of the junta in Greece offered the artist the opportunity to change his painting in order to indict the situation. It relates to his well-known Grave Stelae and the works “Documents”. Violence continued to dominate his work even beyond this dark period, through the depiction of motorbikes, accidents and landscapes altered by human activity. The gradual appearance of female figures, which ultimately established his repute, offered him the opportunity to renew his palette and lent it a fresh vitality. Finally, the visitor will have the opportunity to discover Mytaras’ particular relationship with the theatre with which he was involved for over 40 years. The access we were privileged to have to the impressive, in both volume and quality, archive of the late Dimitris Mytaras, offered us the opportunity to include a plethora of unpublished information in our research, something which imbued this effort with added interest and significance.
The Murder | 1994 , National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum (Donation by the artist in memory of Theo Angelopoulos)
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS
THE CONSISTENT MR MYTARAS What did Dimitris Mytaras see when he looked into the mirror? The great painter was charmed by the magic of the object, which he included in numerous of his works, without ever revealing his reflection on the canvas. At least, that what the artist wished, because a “hidden” self-portrait from his youth has now left his studio to be revealed to the public for the first time by Maria Koutsomalli, the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation art historian, who dedicated an entire year to tracing the painter’s work. After other great teachers, such as Giannis Moralis and Panagiotis Tetsis, the Foundations’ Museum
of Contemporary Art on Andros, is paying homage to Dimitris Mytaras, with dozens of works that highlight his artistic career, unknown facets of his life and the painter’s many and different faces. “His self-portrait was a wonderful and emotional discovery because I found it among archives at Mytaras’ home,” Maria Koutsomalli told us a few days before setting up the exhibition on Andros. The painter’s relationship with the Foundation is symbolically defined by a portrait he painted of Fleurette Karadonti, niece of Elise Goulandris and current President of the Foundation. “She had asked him for a piece and he chose to paint her in a triple mirror”, Mrs Koutsomallis explains, noting that the work combines the artist’s two painting obsessions: “Mirrors which, at the beginning were mainly depicted abstractly, in the form of the mirror, its roundness and the reflections it causes. Later, slowly, he incorporated women among triple and quintuple mirrors. He was always interested in the human form even when colleagues and gallerists told him it was old fashioned and “over-worn”, something painters did to make a living. He placed great importance on the face, and thus became an excellent portraitist with numerous commissions.” The exhibition on Andros is organised in seven basic units: “From the beginning there are numerous unpublished drawings. In these one can see that he was searching for his style: he experimented with abstraction, he played with Matisse’s colours, and drew naked women in the way of Ingres. One can see, in other words, that he was searching for his personal style”, the art historian notes, underlining at the same time that “however he varies his techniques and subject matters, Mytaras never loses sight of his innermost need to reveal his inner truth, what he called “internal consistency.” Throughout the painter’s career, the presence of his partner and fellow artist Charikleia, is moving. “From the early portraits, the model posing was his wife. In these, because he has such a soft spot for her, he always presents her with a tenderness and love which permeates the work. Later, in the commissioned portraits he undertook, what is impressive is what the artist himself said: “I make my portraits looking for myself through them. I therefore always paint my portrait”. This does not mean he did not paint the other beautifully, but they are depicted with such honesty and truth that the other “passes” through his gaze. Often, his models did not want their portrait because it was not flattering. And this was the problem for Mytaras… he did not want to flatter!”.
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View of the first section of the exhibition “the early years”
The ideal woman in the work “What is interesting in these commissions is also the composition. If one observes how he has staged the scene, what he chooses to place behind the face. He usually placed ancient statues and this is important because it reveals a painter’s artistic sensitivity. How to balance the colours, how to elevate the status of the person he is presenting. This is important: I am not saying “beautiful” but it contains the gravitas of painterly value. And beyond this, he did not only paint to commission. He also painted portraits mainly of his pupils. In many cases there are photographs because he did not make his models pose for him. Here you see something important: his main concern is not to paint the model faithfully but to express something behind the obvious”. Why is it he did not show an interest in self-portraits? “He stopped doing these very quickly. What is interesting is that Mytaras is very reminiscent of Braque. Neither were interested in themselves in such a way, like many painters. Mainly, however, it relates to how both approached women. The woman in Mytaras’ work relates to the portraits of recognisable ladies, but are mainly, what he imagines: dream women; similarly to the French painter who did not use models and the few times he presented woemen, she was just this: dreamy. He used to say he could not recreate the beauty of woman. All he wanted to show was “his” ideal woman”. Bitter and persecuted The junta period in Greece was an event that changed Mytaras’ art. “He remained in Greece and completely changed his technique. From painting impulsively, he moved on to using stencils. He would take photographs from various archives; recreate them using
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ΑΠΟΣΠΑΣΜΑΤΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΤΥΠΟ
The curator of the exhibition Marie Koutsomallis-Moreau with Charikleia Mytara, the artist’s wife
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Sketches from the army, 1959
stencils in the desired dimensions, slowly eliminating colours. His palette became increasingly dark and this is when the first works-documents appeared. Men with references to the mafia, empty buildings, works which express cynicism and pessimism for what was happening to the country. Of course, the authorities never wished to, or were never able to see anything in these because he continued to exhibit and create unhindered. The regime’s ignorance was such that they described him as the first pop artist in Greece. As soon as the junta was over, this anger did not subside; he presented numerous pessimistic subject matters. He began to isolate himself more, become more introvert; and this anger was expressed through themes such as his famous motorbikes. Then came the altered landscapes, where one sees roads through a nature that has been completely altered, very far away now from his birthplace, Chalkida. And of course, he expresses himself through dogs, which preoccupied him for a long time. Although he adored animals, these dogs are ready to bite, to attack…” It is the female form that finally “calmed” Mytaras and here, his caustic and uncompromising paintbrush sought an entirely new light and unprecedented liveliness. “The female figure was the only thing that gradually calmed him, from the 1980s and beyond. He described it well himself: “I only painted men during the dictatorship; they have a wild ethos which never interested me. I prefer to paint women and children.” Thus, we enter the sixth thematic unit on women, where everything becomes calm. The forms become poetic; colours begin to come out in a unique manner. After the period of the dark, limited palette, he begins to express himself with rich, warm colours. This harmony reveals an entirely different person”. How would the curator of the exhibition describe him: “What describes him is that he was authentic, he didn’t lie to himself. His painting is raw, and puts everything out there. Mytaras said you should feel my works, not understand them. Whomever accepts these images and truly feels them, will also see Mytaras’ honesty”. In an older interview Mytaras had said: “a work is multidimensional and each person sees within it whatever they want. Everyone sees their own face. It is, in essence, a mirror”.». Giorgos Mylonas, Huffington Post, 4/7/2018
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS THIS YEAR ANDROS IS CALLING TO ART LOVERS TO VISIT There is a nice saying: In the West people search for professors, in the East they want teachers. Dimitris Mytaras always belonged to the second category. He adored painting, but he was equally charismatic in sharing his knowledge and love for the art of the brush. He was, after all, an artist with a rounded education and view of the world, something testified by all those taught by him at the Athens School of Fine Arts. The exhibition opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Goulandris Foundation on Andros entitled “From the Contemporary to the Timeless”, includes works from his entire artistic output. This tribute is a fitting reminder of how great he was and, more importantly, how multifaceted his gift was. Painter, poet, stage and costume designer, illustrator, designer of decorative representations, Mytaras pushed his talent to the limit and was tested in many different fields. All his folds and obsessions will be presented; from the portraits to the motorbikes, to the stray dogs, to the “Documents”. If the Goulandris Museum (soon also in Athens) is notable for something it is its intention to help audiences enter the artists’ universe. From Picasso and Henry Moore to Moralis and Tetsis, all the exhibitions have a tone that is instructive, without the conceit of authority but with an accurate narrative approach. The curator of the tribute to Mytaras, Maria Koutsomalli, has always worked to this principle just like her father, Kyriakos Koutsomallis. Andreas Georgiadis and Vivi Gerolymatou from “Mikri Arktos” who are responsible for the “staging” of the exhibition and the catalogue have, as always, done a wonderful job. Margarita Pournara, Kathimerini newspaper, 27/6/2018
Costume drawings for the play Narrow Road to the Deep North, Edward Bond, Art Theatre, 1974
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View of the “Theatre� section of the exhibition
Preparatory sketch for stage set and costumes, Plutus by Aristophanes, Art Theatre, 1994
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS DIMITRIS MYTARAS: BAROQUE WITH SELF-DISCIPLINE “Mytaras was a born expressionist with classical discipline. A baroque artist who wanted to tame the hyperbole of his character”. This is how Marina Lambraki-Plaka, a great admirer and close friend from their shared years at the Athens School of Fine Arts, chose to describe the Greek painter who died in 2017. The words used by the Director of the National Gallery but also the way in which she viewed his works in the exhibition “From the Contemporary to the Timeless” reveal the deep esteem in which he was held by his colleagues and the public. Present at the opening of the exhibition-tribute at the Museum of Contemporary Art of
the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation on Andros was his wife and painter Charikleia who shared stories of their common life. As charming as the unknown aspects of an artist are, in Mytaras’ case the work astonishes to the degree that you stop listening and lose yourself among drawings and colours. With painting as the driver A skilled designer and not so much a colourist, from the age of 15 Mytaras drew everything and everywhere. On napkins, notebooks, even on the envelopes of the letters sent to him by Charikleia. Early works, however, show the artist’s mastery in depicting not only space but also the character of each subject. A painter who achieved international recognition, who passed through the divides, without ever abandoning his expressionistic idiom. A great teacher, a humble person, a hard-working artist, an intellectual who was condemned to the worst punishment, spending the last years of his life in darkness. From 2008, Mytaras had lost his sight and spent the final years of his life isolated at home, with his wife and fellow painter Charikleia constantly at his side. Seeing the first examples of his work, in the small drawings from the army or his mirrors, one can understand why he believed that painting leads him and not the other way around. It is as if he placed the brush on the canvas and followed the inspiration, often without having decided the destination. “Everything in Mytaras is a paradox. Poetry and violence, lyricism and crassness, exuberance and temperance coexist in a body of work complex and multifaceted, which evolved over almost sixty years alongside its creator”, Maria Koutsomalli, art historian and curator of the exhibition “From the Contemporary to the Timeless” tells “To Vima”. And she continues “He was perhaps the best-known painter in Greece while he was alive but only for a very small part of his work. Although he refused to comment on Greece’s political life, he became, with painting as his only weapon, one of the most hard-hitting critics of the colonels’ junta. An unrivalled designer, he never rested solely on his talent and did not hesitate to introduce photography and stencils into his work method. Displaying the same ease in creating portraits of the famous and compositions that occurred exclusively from his imagination, he refused to confine himself to only one type of representation. Charmed by the world of the theatre, he in-
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volved himself with it with abundant joy because he knew that the solitarily confinement of his studio always awaited him. Behind the irony, the black humour, there was actually an intense sensitivity, a deep humanism which never stopped revolting against the worst aspects of human existence. All these paradoxes, all these contradictions show us, above all, how complete Mytaras was, both in his artistic choices and in his personal course”. “Mytaras had a constant discipline he wanted to subjugate. This is what defines his work. Very often in his works, particularly those inspired by ancient steles, he uses a frame and tries to fit a drawing which wants to overcome its boundaries, within it. This gives the works a dramatic character. There is constantly this antithesis. A character which veers towards the baroque and an internal need for self-confinement” explains Marina Lambraki-Plaka and adds: “My professor, Prevelakis, used to tell me: “Take an artist out of the space he belongs and observe if that space becomes impoverished”. For example, if you remove Kazantzakis from the Greek Language, it immediately become provincial. With Mytaras I would say that he really enriches the history of contemporary Greek art and has created a style and technique which does not match anyone else’s”. Natasa Mastorakou, To Vima newspaper, 13/7/2018
View of the “ancient statues” section of the exhibition
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS WITHOUT MYTARAS COFFEE CUPS At the end of the 1990s when Dimitris Mytaras was on holiday with his wife in Mytilene, they sat at a traditional café for coffee. “I will serve it in luxury Mytaras… cups”, the owner told them, unaware of course, that he had the original Mytaras in front of him! Beloved, popular, one of the most commercially successful painters of his generation, Dimitris Mytaras entered every house in Greece through everyday objects sold with well-known brands in super markets. Many knew him through this but he was not just this. A multifaceted artist, uniquely talented in drawing and colour, who listened to his era, with a political gaze, sensitive to society, nature and animals – particularly dogs – an adoration for the female sex and an important career in theatre. Mytaras, all inclusive, on Andros, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, in the exhibition “Dimitris Mytaras: From the Contemporary to the Timeless” (until 1st September), which narrates his artistic career, curated by Maria Koutsomalli. The thread of the narrative begins in Chalkida, where D. Mytaras was born in 1934, his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1952, his military service and the long letters sent to Charikleia accompanied by drawings, small masterpieces in pen, the paintings of
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costumes and stage designs for the Theatro Technis and the National Theatre of Northern Greece. The element of violence gradually enters his images. Fragmented ancient statues testify decay and the threat of the coup by the colonels, realistic documents from newspaper photographs with stern men wearing hats and glasses, express the atmosphere of repression and non-freedom during the junta. Indeed, he was called to the police station and cautioned for these works … “Its best if you don’t paint any more of these”. Large scale portraits with wild dogs but also roads that “invade” the natural landscape, succeed evocative funerary steles and expressive women in front of mirrors. Despite his reputation as a portraitist, Mytaras stated repeatedly that most people didn’t like their portraits because they didn’t flatter them… “My best works are portraits which no one commissioned” he would add. The great painter who died a year ago used to say that “Paintings probably belong more to those who feel them and less to those who understand them”. This exhibition however, makes us both feel them and understand them. Pari Spinou, Εfsyn newspaper, 3/7/2018
View of the “Dictatorship” section of the exhibition
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS
THE MOURNING, THE THEATRE, THE MOTORBIKES OF DIMITRIS MYTARAS Many of us may have enjoyed our coffee in cups with his designs. His portraits, drawn using strong lines on red backgrounds may be instantly recognisable even by those not that knowledgeable of art. But how many of us have had the chance to see him playing with his dog, Hockney, named after the great British painter? Posing dressed as a harlequin or being embraced by Tzeni Karezi between Kostas Kazakos, Vasilis Papavasiliou and Eleni Karaindrou? These could be scenes from a film of his life, and are indeed shots from a career that elevated him to become one of the most recognisable and recognised painters and that welcome visitors to the exhibition “Dimitris Mytaras – from the Contemporary to the Timeless” at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation. An exhibition which is not a retrospective in spirit, more of a revelation of lesser known aspects of the initially self-taught, talented designer who saw his first works proudly exhibited in his father’s barber shop in Chalkida, through the 100 works selected by the exhibition’s curator Maria Koutsomalli-Moreau; it begins with the drawings in pen he sent his beloved Charikleia during his military service and wonderful creations on tiny pieces of paper which reveal his mastery in drawing (inherited from his late mother who died very young), next to photographs of his life. Junta: The pallet begins to darken before the coup and gets darker as the seven-year period progresses. Pessimism, disaffection and stencils enter his work. Male figure reminiscent of gangsters and empty buildings. Works that lead him before the authorities. He tried to convince them that they are just people walking or shouting in a stadium. The police set him free with the recommendation not to paint any more! Violence: The junta may have fallen but Dimitris Mytaras’ anger has not abated; less of a political dimension, more relating to a pessimism on the future of humankind. His favourite dogs are ready to bite and howl. Motorbikes also become symbols of violence like their drivers and turn into wild animals. Car Cemetery expresses the trauma caused by his wife’s serious car accident. Portraits: The pallet lightens. The angles become sharp. Primary colours take pride of place. Commissions come in thick and fast, as does success even though he does not flatter his models. He is only present in an early self-portrait. He preferred to paint himself in others’ portraits. The best, however – he admits – are those not commissioned by anyone. Mary Adamopoulou, Τa Nea newspaper, 5/7/2018
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Dog on yellow background 1994, Private Collection
View of the “New forms of violence” section of the exhibition
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS
THE CLEAR AND HONEST VOICE OF DIMITRIS MYTARAS ON ANDROS Sixty years of creativity are impossible to fit into a museum like the one of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation on Andros. This admission was the guide for the staging of the exhibition “Dimitris Mytaras: From the Contemporary to the Timeless” held the Museum of Contemporary Art, a year after the artist’s death. Despite the limitations of the space, visitors leave the exhibition having received a comprehensive overview of the painter’s work, a sense of discovering an “unknown” Mytaras, that extends far beyond the limits defined by his popularity. The presentation of approximately one hundred, mostly large scale, known and lesser known works by Mytaras, was a “staging challenge”, according to the exhibition’s curator, Maria Koutsomalli. The museum’s rooms had to be “clothed” in dark colours in order to highlight the artist’s mastery in colour. Here, divided into seven units, unfolds an indicative retrospective of Dimitris Mytaras’ career, beginning from his studies next to Papaloukas and Moralis, when he experimented with abstraction, with colour following the example of Matisse, and others.
View of the “Woman” section of the exhibition
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Mytaras “never stopped drawing, with everything he could fine, everywhere he could”. His first exhibition was in his father’s barber shop where he proudly presented on the walls the painterly achievements of his son. Some of these drawings are being exhibited to the public for the first time, including sketches for later works on tiny pieces of paper or impression of a “tender era” through the pen sketches that accompanied his daily letters to Charikeia, his “Zouzou”… In these he expresses the loneliness and melancholy atmosphere of his military service, but also his great skill in drawing. Another important aspect of his creative course highlighted in the exhibition are his stage and costume designs for the theatre. “He was not a theatre person”, his wife describes, but this was his way “of escaping the loneliness of the studio”. His contact with stage and costume design began with the performance “Tonight We Improvise” by Pirandello, directed by Dimitris Myrat, and continued in Paris where the couple went to continued their studies, departing on their wedding day. Upon his return, he collaborated with the NTNG, the National Theatre and, above all, the Theatro Technis of Karolos Koun and his students; the most notable performances were “Woyzeck”, by Büchner, “The Birds” directed by Mimis Kougioumtzis, and others. Photographs, sketches and models of stage sets and costumes comprise the unit which covers this aspect of his work.
View of the “Woman” section of the exhibition
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS
From the left: Fleurette Karadontis (president of the Foundation), Spiros Kakouriotis (journalist), Marie Koutsomallis-Moreau, (exhibition curator), Kyriakos Koutsomallis (director of the Museum), and Charikleia Mytara, during the media presentation.
A central position is dedicated to the works the artist created during the junta, a period which was definitive for the evolution of his work. In around 1969, his pallet darkens and, as noted by the art historian Maria Koutsomalli, “cuts off his hand”. He no longer draws, but uses stencils. He is inspired by photographic “documents”, as he noted himself: “I instinctively used photorealism which helped depict the atmosphere of the junta better”. Works dominated by fragmented statues - a metonym for tortured bodies – in front of the closed-up houses of a deserted town are also included in this unit, as are the “Funerary” works which permeate a silent sorrow, often depicting Charikleia Mytara. The violence he witnessed during the junta was depicted differently if subsequent years, as the violence of modern civilisation on man and nature, through the series of works of motorbikes, car crashes and wild dogs. Finally, a large section of the exhibition is dedicated to his portraits, not only those of anonymous girls in Chalkida by which he was inspired, but also those he painted to commission, often having to struggle with the particularities and demands of his models – as in the case of the academic Nikolaos Louros, whom he sought to take “revenge” on for his pressing interventions in his work, by depicting him, afterwards, in a second portrait, as a zombie. Mytaras was “a clear and honest voice”, a modernist without an angst for “Greekness”, characteristics highlighted brilliantly in this exhibition, staged brilliantly by Andreas Georgiadis and Vivi Gerolymatou, from “Mikri Arktos”, also responsible for the publication of the bilingual (Greek-English) catalogue. Spiros Kakouriotis, monopoli.gr, 3/7/2018
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View of the “portraits” section of the exhibition
View of the “portraits” section of the exhibition
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V I S I TO R S ' B O O K
Vibrant. Energetic. Brilliant. J.D. Canada Brilliant! Great painter! Impressive women! A really must see! A.A. Very talented artist – transcending various genres. M. – T. Z. Thank you for a very nice visit, the art is exceptional! A. Family, Israel It’s been an honor for us, visiting this stunning museum. Hope that we’ll meet again. A.- A. Congratulations on yet another superb exhibition. Thank you. E.A. Very interesting exhibition and wonderful artist! S.-F., Italia Beautiful discovery as always in this Museum! Bravo! D.M – M.A.
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instagram Photographs from
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I N S I D E T H E F O U N D AT I O N ' S PERMANENT COLLEC TION
Dimitris Mytaras (1934-2017)
Five Roads, 1980 Oil on wood, 70 x 100 εκ. Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
[...] Crepuscular landscapes by Mytaras where not even the slightest romantic touch alights to calm a seemingly dust-laden atmosphere that reveals nature in all its gloom, estranged by the encroachment of urbanism. He describes this new orientation in the following terms: ‛Shortly after, I experimented with the same rapid brushstrokes creating a series of landscapes with roads and various signs with fleeting indicators like I often see while traveling in my car. In other words, a kind of alienated landscape with a great many elements from graphic art while the streets, road signs and boundless landscape get confused. This strange vista becomes even more intense and alluring when night falls and calls for a hurried and often immediate execution while the shapes become indistinguishable from one another and the colors blend together. Various bright lines remain sharp like we so often see in long-exposure [slow shutter] photography that captures the movement of cars’.4 In these remarks we can discern a genuine interest, of a purely plastic nature, in the dance of curves as in the way roads appear at high speed when dusk falls. But the ghostly atmosphere, the unlikely appearance of the moon in the middle of a vesperal sky, the black bulk of mountains, the tangle of the curves’ trajectories that confusedly reflects the asphalt, dividing lines and road-signs imbue the whole with a feeling of restrained violence, nature outraged all the way to its most remote corners. Anything can happen inside these mazes, including accidents. Moreover, it is no coincidence that this thematic arose in 1980 when only months before Charikleia herself survived a serious car accident.5 Just as a motorcycle rider can be momentarily blinded and kill someone, hands covered by gloves as if to prevent leaving fingerprints so too can a car become a death machine, a formless carcass whose bent metal betokens the violent impact. The spectral landscapes of Mytaras persist despite the disappearance of roads and road-signs. Always crepuscular, rendered in mirror image, they will lose themselves in a mass of undulations, a jumble that nevertheless underscores Mytaras’ fondness for vigorous painting, for letting his brush elude his command. [...] Marie Koutsomallis-Moreau
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The exhibition catalogue
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RETROSPECTIVE OF THE ANDROS MUSEUM
HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
Woman as Myth
24 JUNE - 23 SEPTEMBER 2001
The aim of this retrospect in time is to remind ourselves and the friends of the Museum of certain important landmark events in the thirty-five year existence of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation; events which promoted it and to which it largely owes it recognisability. The thematic exhibition dedicated to Toulouse-Lautrec and Woman as Myth was undoubtedly an artistic event with broad resonance. The exhibition presented 135 portraits of women (oil paintings, drawings and engravings), from European museums and Institutions (such as the Musée d'Orsay, the Tate Gallery, the E.G. Bührle Foundation, the Pierre Gianadda Foundation, the Bemberg Foundation, the Beyeler gallery, and others), for the first time in Greece. In the summer of 2001, Foundations and collectors brought the audience in contact with and, through an innovative perspective, promoted the viewpoint of the female figure and its multifaceted existential entity. Women of the Parisian Belle Époque, aristocrats, women of the night and of cabarets, women of ephemeral pleasure, singers, dancers, actresses clowns, acrobats, unknown, anonymous women but also female personalities of so-called high society, mythicize and, at the same time, de-mythicize the image of the woman with desire and passion, with obsession and fantasy, with excitement and exaltation, with sensitivity and psychoanalytical astuteness but also with the honesty of the disappointments the artist experienced every time his physical deformity became an obstacle in his desire for the women he fell in love with and who, in turn, approached him with sympathy and tenderness.
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RETROSPECTIVE OF THE ANDROS MUSEUM
Although short, his creative career was fertile and imaginative in innovative ideas and techniques, which elevated him to become one of the greatest painters of the previous century. In his work, the female figure in all its forms and manifestations will always dominate, prevailing and imposing. The myth he has created for them with such honesty, sensitivity, humanity and tenderness, almost like archetypal figures, has gained a gravitas equal to the conformity of social reputation, which destined them for extinction and oblivion.
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Having had the luck and honour to curate that panorama I reminisce the months of preparation with gratitude. The unforgettable journey with Elise Goulandris to Albi, to the Toulouse Lautrec Museum in the South of France, but also the numerous contacts I was lucky enough to make with the directors and curators of museum and Foundation collections and the numerous private collectors who supported this project were experiences which I still treasure in my memory 17 years later. Kyriakos Koutsomallis
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C U LT U R A L A G E N D A
LONDON
NATIONAL GALLERY COURTAULD IMPRESSIONISTS: FROM MANET TO CÉZANNE
An exhibition of over 40 impressionist masterpieces is welcomed by the National Gallery. In collaboration with the Courtauld Gallery, this exhibition includes famous works by Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Manet, Seurat and others. Duration of exhibition until 20/01/2019 www.nationalgallery.org.uk
VIENNA
ALBERTINA WARHOL TO RICHTER
a large exhibition dedicated to artists of the second half of the 20th century. Over 70 works by artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Gottfried Helnwein, Andy Warhol, Alex Katz and Maria Lassnig represent the artistic tendencies on painting after 1945. Duration of exhibition until 24/03/2019 www.albertina.at
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VIENNA
ALBERTINA CLAUDE MONET
A large exhibition dedicated to Claude Monet and his work organised by the Albertina. One of the main French innovators of 20th century painting with a personal style and rendition of light in his paintings. Duration of exhibition until 16/01/2019 www.albertina.at
PA R I S
CENTRE POMPIDOU LE CUBISME
For the first time in France since 1953, the Centre Pompidou is dedicating an exhibition on Cubism through a broad panorama of the history of the movement in Paris with paintings by Picasso, Cezanne, Gauguin, Braque, Gris, Laurens κ.α. Duration of exhibition until 25/02/2019 www.centrepompidou.fr
PA R I S
FONDATION LOUIS VUITTON JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT
This exhibition covers the entire artistic output, from 1980 to 1988, of Basquiat, one of the most important painters of the 20th century; highlights exhibited for the first time and the presentation of several collaborations between Basquiat and Warhol. Duration of exhibition until 14/01/2019 www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr
GENOVA
PALAZZO DUCALE FROM MONET TO BACON
The exhibition presents over sixty works, oil paintings and drawings, by the greatest painters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the Johannesburg Art Gallery collection: Degas, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso to Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Duration of exhibition until 03/03/2019 www.palazzoducale.genova.it
PA R I S
GRANDPALAIS: MIRÓ
Retrospective exhibition of Miró with over 150 works which highlights the artist’s technical and stylistic evolution during his artistic career. Miró transformed and depicted the world around him with a clear simplicity through his personal, poetic gaze. Duration of exhibition until 04/02/2019 www.grandpalais.fr
PA R I S
MUSEE D’ORSAY PICASSO. BLUE AND ROSE
This exhibition is dedicated to the early blue and rose artistic periods of Pablo Picasso. It contains masterpieces and suggests a new interpretation of the period 1900-1906, a critical period in the artist’s career which to this day is not covered in its entirety by a French Museum. Duration of exhibition until 06/01/2019 www.musee-orsay.fr
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C U LT U R A L A G E N D A
BASEL
FONDATION BEYELER: BALTHUS
The Fondation Beyeler dedicates a retrospective exhibition to the artist Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (1908-2001), widely know as Balthus. This is the first Balthus exhibition in a Swiss museum since 2008 and the first comprehensive presentation of his work in Switzerland. Duration of exhibition until 01/01/2019 https://www.fondationbeyeler.ch
MADRID
MUSEUM THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA BECKMANN. EXILE FIGURES
In the autumn of 2018, the museum dedicates a retrospective exhibition to the artist Max Beckmann (1884 -1950), one of the leading artists of the 20th century in Germany. Initially close to expressionism and the new objectiveness, he developed a unique, realistic, iconographical style with symbolisms that reflect a powerful image of the society of his time. Duration of exhibition until 27/01/2019 www.museothyssen.org 36
BILBAO
GUGGENHEIM ALBERTO GIACOMETTI
Retrospective exhibition of Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Over 200 sculptures, paintings and drawings compose a performance which offers a unique perspective of his work. Duration of exhibition until 24/02/2019 www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus
ΜΙΛΆΝΟ
MUDEC: THE ART OF BANSKY. A VISUAL PROTEST
The MUDEC (Museo delle Culture in Milan) is in the pleasant position of presenting a solo exhibition of the British artist for the first time including paintings, sculptures and drawings alongside objects, photos and video projections. Duration of exhibition until 14/04/2019 www.mudec.it
STOCKHOLM
THE MODERNA MUSEET WARHOL 1968
MONTREAL
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ALEXANDER CALDER
Did you know that the first Andy Warhol solo exhibition in a museum in Europe was at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1968? The criticism for pro-American propaganda was expected – but reactions were split. "Warhol 1968" is an exhibition about that exhibition.
The Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal is presenting the first large retrospective of Calder (1898-1976) in order to highlight all aspects of the career of the American “who made sculpture, movement”.
ΝΈΑ ΥΌΡΚΗ
NEW YORK
Duration of exhibition until 12/02/2019 www.mbam.qc.ca
Duration of exhibition until 17/02/2019 www.modernamuseet.se
THE JEWISH MUSEUM CHAGALL, LISSITZKY, MALEVICH:
THE RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE IN VITEBSK Through 160 works, the exhibition traces the exciting post-revolutionary era, when art history was created in Vitebsk, far from Russia’s main towns and created an artistic movement which forms a lesser known chapter in the history of innovation and Russian avant-garde. Duration of exhibition until 06/01/2019 www.thejewishmuseum.org
MOMA CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI
Speaking about the artist’s work, the poet Ezra Pound noted characteristically that it contained “the basic keys to the world of form”. In a productive artistic course of over 50 years, the works of Brancusi (1876–1957) were a revelation for notions on sculpture of his time and influenced the following generations of artists. Duration of exhibition until 24/02/2019 www.moma.org
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