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by Alkis Charalampidis |
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Apostolos Kilessopoulos has seen more than twenty-eight years service as a painter. In order to give an account of his career, the requirements of methodology necessitate its division into sections, yet it should be emphasized from the start that Kilessopoulos is an artist whose oeuvre is beyond all doubt, of a unified character. His starting-point is clear to see, his development has been consistent, and his efforts have brought controlled results; this is true of his endeavors to acquire, first, a technique that would serve him well and, them, to define his choice of themes, to determine the direction of his stylistic explorations and in general to concentrate and shape his vision. Kilessopoulos' first important works appeared around 1960. This marked the start of his first artistic period, which lasted until 1964, corresponding to the years when he lived in Germany. From this time derives a series of works: drawings, aquarelles and oil paintings, all small to medium-sized, as well as a few important ventures into sculpture and stage design. He is here concerned with both landscape and cityscape, with still life and the human body. The most prevalent colours are blue, brown, faded yellows and reds, and turquoise. The juxtaposition of these colours gives the paintings their sense of depth, since the rules of geometric perspective have been consciously swept aside. The artist's expressionist tendency is apparent: his aquarelles, in particular, recall Kandinsky's landscapes from around Murnau in Bavaria; and his stylisation and preoccupation with the abstract often bring him close to works by Feininger. In 1964 Kilessopoulos returned to Greece and settled in Athens. He continued to work in light materials, with a preference for blue and red. His landscapes were depicted as a fusion and remodeling of elements of earth and sky; nudes were usually presented on open shores before a wide horizon; and still lifes were also placed in the open. At the same time, however, new elements entered his compositions: boats, full and crescent moons, suns, and funeral sculptures. Emphasis was laid on the design elements, and no space was left unfilled. In these paintings there is an evident predilection for forms from ancient art, combined with a symbolist tendency. The works of this phase, which lasted up to 1970 bear the stamp of the painter's renewed contact with Greece after a period of absence, and are loaded with a multitude of experiences and memories linked with that event. The next period, from 1970 to 1974, is distinguished by the appearance of Kilessopoulos' first large compositions in oils, by his use of collage, and by the continued production of aquarelles. The nudes were now transferred to an urban environment; nor was the still life neglected. Suns and moons appeared as persistently as before. Yellow, blue, mauve and black became the chief colours. Between the years 1971 and 1972 a reorientation occurred, chiefly marked by influences from Cubism and Orphism. The change was triggered by Braque "Homage a Braque", but its Orphist manifestations, with their airy colours and abstract space, had a musical core, as reflected in titles like "M. Ravel's Toy Room", "Soundbox". An almost constant feature was the juxtaposition of curves and straight lines, both horizontal and vertical. In 1973 and 1974, when this confrontation took on the character of a direct clash between the organic and the inorganic, it acquired dramatic dimensions. The thrusting shapes became ever more urgent, the colours were heavy and depressing grays and blacks, forms were picked out with abrupt slashes, strange, deformed heads emerged from the realms of the improbable, searching, threatening eyes were scattered in a nocturnal atmosphere. Everything tended to rule out the possibility of man's finding a safe place for himself. The next four years (1975-1978)
were dominated by oil paintings of medium and large dimensions, although
a limited number of aquarelles and drawings
in Chinese
ink also appeared. In these paintings the human figure can be discerned,
as can the sea. It becomes clear, however, that the intensity of the
works of
1973-74 has been removed to a cosmic plane, though without complete rejection
of the earth landscape. Elemental forces are now locked in combat within
the infinite. Graphic features recede, while colour -blue, white, yellow-
starts
to play the leading role, alongside the ever-moving curve, not only on
the surface of the painting but also in the background, which is beginning
to
be a typical background no longer, but assumes an autonomous magnitude
of its
own, beyond known units of measurement. After the above brief account of Kilessopoulos' career, certain observations may be made. As a creative artist he has a constant and successful tendency to experiment, above all with techniques and materials. The progressive increase in the size of the painting seems, to some extent, to be the result of his having become ever better equipped to deal with the problems of technique, which he solves one by one as he advances. Repeated reference has been made to his choice of themes. Suffice it to stress once again the recurrence of the nude human form as a permanent object of inquiry. Associated with it is an indefinable sensuality, or erotic love, one might say, which is scattered and lost somewhere in the universe. On the other hand, in a large part of the artist's work the nude figure, or figures as already noted, comes to express a threat to life itself. This is because, although depicted as young and full of energy and health, the figures appear to be in danger, not only from external destructive forces, but also from the stigma of death, whish they already carry within themselves, as is clear from their mode of functioning within the composition. Colour is the factor which most often concerns us in Kilessopoulos' work. Only call to mind his blues, which direct the eye towards magical depths-though they are controllable depths, since they are never wholly dark; or his use of light, which has no specific source, but is omnipresent and often clashes dramatically with the dark. One should, however, never overlook the role of design in his paintings. It is no rare phenomenon for painters to sacrifice design to the enchantment and expressive powers of colour. Kilessopoulos, on the contrary, continually redoubles his efforts in this respect, to the point where design appears to support even his most abstract compositions. This is an additional factor to convince us that he has not chosen the abstract as a refuge from any weaknesses of his own, but out of artistic necessity. This feature is in fact another aspect of his creativity, since good draughtsman ship, as he himself believes, means good organisation, controlled progress, the gradual gaining of ground, and affirmation of the individual -all elements which refer us back to the social function of the work of art. His forms have a protean character. They are malleable, continually taking on new shape. They are imbued with the very dynamism of life, which after a certain point seems to be transported into space so as to fecundate the processes of the universe. The antitheses between earth and sky, fire and water, light and dark are metamorphosed a into universal cosmic drama. The titles of some of the works are revealing: "Return and Dissolution", "Cosmic Landscape", "Vortex", "Inferno", "Insensible Breath", "Recycling". Meanwhile the image itself is saturated with deep and genuine feeling. Kilessopoulos has from time to time been associated with various currents in the art of our century, yet he has achieved a uniquely personal mode of expression, and has established his own identity within contemporary Greek art. Alkis
Charalampidis Translated by J.R. Collins-Litsas |