exhibition works

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

An exhibition of works by Alexis Akirthakis is one of the annual exhibitions held by Kalfayan Galleries dedicated to the most important Greek representatives of Modernism.

Known for his colorful palette and playful, though sometimes ironic, themes, Akrithakis remains one of the most important figures of post war art in Greece. Largely self-taught, Akrithakis embarked on an intellectual and artistic life that led him from Athens to Paris and then to Berlin in 1968 where he spent some of his most creative and productive years before returning to Athens in 1984.

Two works in the exhibition are dedicated to his friends, the writer Kostas Tachtsis and the poet and intellectual, George Makris. Akrithakis kept company with intellectuals in Athens and later, in Berlin, through his wife’s restaurant, Fofi’s, when it became a meeting place for the artistic world of the German capital.

A microcosm of archetypal symbols and images of personal experiences flows through his works: flowers and flags, suitcases and bicycles, the heart and the sun come together to create magical worlds in paintings, watercolors and wood constructions. In his tsiki-tsiki drawings, as Tachtsis called them, labyrinthine lines drawn in pen and ink conjure up imaginary worlds in an automatic script. Akrithakis created a visual mythology in which travel and adventure played a major role and the symbols that he used repeatedly –the suitcase, the bicycle, the airplane– evoked a desire for escape that was not only physical but psychological as well.

The Estate of Alexis Akrithakis