Vlassis Caniaris

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vlassis Caniaris
Vier-Sterne Koppel
signed, inscribed and dated 70 on the reverse
mixed media on polystyrene
129 by 101cm., 50¾ by 39¾in.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the present owner

Exhibited

Paris, Musée d'art Moderne de la ville de Paris, 1970
Stockholm, Moderna Musset, 1977
Venice, Biennale di Venezia, 1988
Thessaloniki, Bafopouleio Center, 1991

Literature

Michael Fehr, Vlassis Caniaris, Nuremberg, 1991, pp. 137 & 260, no. 70/1, illustrated

Catalogue Note

In the present work, composed of the plaster and wire mesh so distinctive within his canon, Caniaris focuses on '... the texture of these unconventional materials and their transformation into formal vocabulary,' while retaining interest in '... showing that the conventional boundaries of the painting have been disrupted and that the inner material ultimately dictates the outer shape' (Haris Kambouridis & George Levounis, Modern Greek Art. The Twentieth Century, Athens, 1999, p. 170).

Caniaris is a fundamental part of the dialogue within the Greek and international modernist avant-garde, starting from his participation in the Greek Sixties Generation with Nikos Kessanlis. His break with the Greek pictorial tradition and conventional culture was ground-breaking in its 'art for art's sake' attitude.