Still Life With Lace
After a long absence, Chrisanthos Sotiropoulos reunited with his small but dedicated circle of friends and fans in Athens this summer.
The occasion was an invitation from his long-time friend, Themistocles Ragias, to co-curate a solo exhibition of his works, titled “Still Life with Lace,” along with Sofia Iliana Georgiades. This event was part of the Back to Athens 11 International Art Meeting.
Sotiropoulos’ works can be characterized as a “cosmic anatomy” of human existence, reflecting his flexibility in creating intense and emotionally charged images through his mixed media technique. The figures are realistically depicted within a dramatic narrative environment where the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, the subconscious and the conscious, are blurred.
Nothing in his works is spontaneous or accidental; everything exists for a reason, a purpose. Sotiropoulos provocatively plays with extremity and surrealism, offering the viewer a deeply melancholic and contemplative experience. His insistence on a simple, dynamic background with broken lines lost in the haze of infinity creates a grid that encloses the sad side of human existence. The intense shadows and bright areas, and the unfinished nature of the setting and figures, suggest the uncertainty, the fluidity of existence, and the search for meaning in a constantly changing world.
All the works in the series “Still Life with Lace” are a symbolic reference by Sotiropoulos to the cycle of life. Man is presented as both a mischievous child and an adult surrendered to his fate. As a child, he wanders through the “escape rooms” of his life, exploring every corner without a trace of fear because he is still unaware of the true dimensions of life and death. Although the prophetic words of the subconscious—whom Sotiropoulos calls Sibyl—ring in his ears, he disobeys them. In his innocent youthfulness, he believes that by wearing the mask of reason or by playing the nimble rabbit, he can overcome the difficulties of life and conquer his fears. His presence alongside domestic animals such as the cow and goat is another layer of symbolism, suggesting their shared fate as domesticated beings when the time comes for them to be deemed unproductive or necessary to become cattle for the common good (Tannery). Sotiropoulos’ works are both deeply caustic and intensely critical of a human society that subtly caricatures innocence, exemplified by the rabbit’s head in his painting of the same name as the exhibition.
The adult phase is represented as a harsh period where any sense of individual freedom is abolished. Man becomes a “prisoner” of the dictates of society, like the female figure in “Bondage.” As he ages, the individual’s resistance diminishes. He learns to submit, to fear, and becomes the object of social, mental, and spiritual dismemberment, even up to the moment of his death. The symbolism in the work “Nobody” is characteristic, dramatically depicting the sad end of man. The male figure is presented realistically, dismembered and disassembled, naked on a morgue table. The surrounding space, with its pervasive sense of abstraction and absolute emptiness, marks the end of suffering and its redemption, as seen in the calm face of the dead man.
The poetic, simple, and abstract Sotiropoulos speaks with his “silence” to “real” children of all ages, managing to convey what others cannot through heavy-handed pictorial “narratives.”
Main photo: Chrisanthos Sotiropoulos, Still Life With Lace, 2014. Mixed media on paper, 66Χ45 cm
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