Editorial

SECOND ISSUE

Everything started as an "idée fixe" which, before having a relapse, was simply curiosity: What is the position and the role, the roots and the fruits of the contemporary plastic creation in a country like Greece? An ancient, and at the same time, bright new country with Balkan, Mediterranean, and European orientation, a country that has passed within only one century from the first to the second "wave"⁽¹⁾. That is, a country that has passed without drawing breath from the agricultural to the industrial society and now moves, with every sail set, towards the information society. Obviously the price paid for this deed had -and still has- all its consequences, along with their interest on capital...

So, the "idée fixe" manifested in ART TOPOS was expressed as the need for the creation of a continuously enhanced database for the fine arts in modern Greece. We have started by trying to present in ART TOPOS' pages the whole Costakis and Dakis Joannou Collections, as well as a selection from the works of many Greek artists that are stored in the basement of the National Gallery of Athens (we speak about the works, not the artists...) These were expensive web publications but, unfortunately, we have not found the required sponsoring. So we sponsored ourselves. Let's start from somewhere, we thought: from the Works and Days of this over-kinetic and interesting conjectural year, from June '95 to June '96, and then, God is great...

Two important collections were exhibited, marking -by pure coincidence- the beginning and the end of Modernism: The G. Costakis Collection with works of the Russian Avant-Garde at the National Gallery and the Dakis Joannou Collection, (under the title "Everything that's interesting is new") at the "Factory" of the Athens Fine Arts School. Of these two outstanding exhibitions, the first can be considered as a milestone in the beginning of modern art history, particularly in relation with the cosmogonic historical moment in Russia of the early 20th century. The second one provides a milestone towards the end of modern art, particularly as expressed in the metropolis of the post-industrial era values: New York of the 20th century's last twenty-year period.

Within the same time interval, the position of the Greek avant-garde artists of the fifties was provided by the Yannis Spyropoulos retrospective exhibition -who was the pioneer of Abstraction in Greece- and by the Yannis Gaitis' works exhibition, covering an early period of his creation and some of his newly discovered works.

The still "obscure" Italian period of the most renowned Greek artist, El Greco was the subject of a considerable exhibition at the National Gallery in Athens, as well as of an international meeting held in Crete island, native land of El Greco (Dominicos Theotocopoulos).

"Giorgio de Chirico and the Hellenic Myth" was the title and the subject of an exhibition at the Andros Modern Art Museum, showing works of the Greek-born "father of metaphysical painting".

From the contemporary Greek artists with an international carrier, we have selected representatives of three artistic generations whose works were exhibited within this period. The older generation is represented by the photographer Nelly's, whose work was presented at the "Photo-Synkyria" exhibition, namely her (in the thirties) controversial "Acropolis nudes". The middle generation is represented by the sculptor Chryssa, who settled for some time in Greece to create a new series of sculptures under the title "Ciné Oasis", to be displayed at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. Finally, the younger generation is represented by George Lappas and Costis (to whose work was dedicated ART TOPOS' first issue).

Also, within the same period, many other remarkable exhibitions took place, which we mention in brief.

Contrary to the first ART TOPOS issue -that was an historical and critical analysis of a single artist's work- our second issue aims to present to the international Internet community an indicative profile of the contemporary Greek fine arts scene, through a summary presentation of one year's fine art events.

ART TOPOS

(1): Alvin Toffler: "The Third Wave" Cactos ed., 1982

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