Τέχνη

Jessica Lack introduces fifty pioneering modern and contemporary art movements born out of political engagement, decolonization, marginalization or conflict. These movements have aimed to revitalize society by challenging the status quo. While not as well known as Pop Art, Dada and Futurism, these associations of artists - such as the Saqqakhaneh artists of Iran, the Stridentists of Mexico, Jikken Kobo of Japan or America's AfriCobra - have empowered and given voice to their members.

Global Art brings unfamiliar material to life by exploring the unique historical context for each art movement, key cultural events and interconnections, and the key protagonists in the movement's evolution.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are the only early Greek heroic epics to have survived the transition to writing, even though extant evidence indicates that they emerged from a thriving oral culture. Among the missing are the songs of Boeotian Thebes. Homer's Thebes examines moments in the Iliad and Odyssey where Theban characters and thematic engagements come to the fore. Rather than sifting through these appearances to reconstruct lost poems, Elton Barker and Joel Christensen argue that the Homeric poems borrow heroes from Thebes to address key ideas-about politics, time, and genre-that set out the unique superiority of these texts in performance. By using evidence from Hesiod and fragmentary sources attributed to Theban tradition, Barker and Christensen explore Homer's appropriation of Theban motifs of strife and distribution to promote his tale of the sack of Troy and the returns home. As Homer's Thebes shows, this Theban material sheds light on the exceptionality of the Homeric epics through the notions of poetic rivalry and Panhellenism. Furthermore, by emphasizing a nonhierarchical model of "reading" the epics derived from oral-formulaic poetics, this book contributes to recent debates about allusion, neoanalysis, and intertextuality.

Born into a large, musical, and bohemian family in London, the British artist John Craxton (1922-2009) has been described as a Neo-Romantic, but he called himself a "kind of Arcadian". His early art was influenced by Blake, Palmer, Miro, and Picasso. After achieving a dream of moving to Greece, his work evolved as a personal response to Byzantine mosaics, El Greco, and the art of Greek life.

This book tells his adventurous story for the first time. At turns exciting, funny, and poignant, the saga is enlivened by Craxton's ebullient pictures. Ian Collins expands our understanding of the artist greatly-including an in-depth exploration of the storied, complicated friendship between Craxton and Lucian Freud, drawing on letters and memories that Craxton wanted to remain private until after his death.

Spanning a rich variety of works from the 1940s to the 2000s, this book celebrates the life and work of the British artist John Craxton (1922–2009). It charts the development of Craxton’s work from the poetic, melancholy images created in wartime Britain to the vibrant paintings and drawings produced in his adopted homeland of Greece. The book revisits the artist’s early life and looks at the influence of British Romantic art and the landscape of England and Wales on his work, while also exploring themes around LGBTQ+ identity, his relationship to significant modern British and international artists, and the historical context of mid-century Britain and Greece.
 
Featuring short essays and texts from contributors including Sir David Attenborough, Ian Collins, Simon Martin, Miriam O'Connor Perks, David Mellor, Edmund White, Hilary Spurling, and Tacita Dean―covering subjects across Craxton’s career, including book illustration, landscape, ballet design, ceramics, and tapestry―this lively account showcases the diverse artistic output of this key figure in British art history.

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, I had very serious doubts about whether I wanted to cover it.
A week later -and while everyone was waiting to see the Russian army take Kiev- I realised that this is the first war in Europe and the first war in the 21st century without any ideological bias - that is, it is clearly geopolitical.
When history is written, people's stories are lost. The big agencies and TV networks focus on the war zones, the shelters, the stream of refugees - the "hot" news. The big picture that one sees in a crisis, a disaster, a war is likely generic, perhaps even stereotypical - and it certainly does not delve into people's lives.
I wanted to approach people's stories and how they reconstruct the big picture. I'm interested in understanding how war has turned their lives upside down, how they think, what they want, what they fear; to illuminate their collective and individual trauma.
Having worked several times in war zones in the past, I've always had a special appreciation for those people who remain in their homes during the bombings.
I went to the east side and the west side of the Dnieper, to five different apartment buildings representing three different historical periods: the tsarist, the socialist and the period of independence.
I met people from all social groups and classes. One introduced me to the other and for 15 days we lived together (the third and fourth week of the war, during the bombing of Kiev).
I did not just watch as an observer who arrives, takes pictures and leaves. The shots were taken inside these people's homes during the overnight curfew and air-raid sirens. They shared their food, their home and their thoughts with me.
This is their voice. (From the publisher)

Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen whether it be the 1960s of the 2020s, The Velvet Underground represent ground zero. Crystallizing the idea of the bohemian, urban, narcissistic art school gang, around a psychedelic rock and roll band - a stylistic idea that evolved in the rarefied environs of Andy Warhol's Factory - The Velvets were the first major American rock group with a mixed gender line-up; they never smiled in photographs, wore sunglasses indoors, and in the process invented the archetype. They were avant-garde nihilists, writing about drug abuse, prostitution, paranoia, and sado-masochistic sex at a time when the rest of the world was singing about peace and love.



Dylan Jones' definitive oral history of The Velvet Underground draws on contributions from remaining members, contemporaneous musicians, critics, film-makers, and the generation of artists who emerged in their wake, to celebrate not only their impact but their legacy, which burns brighter than ever into the 21st century.

Available in bookstores this week, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival photo book Marking Time. The Pandemic and the Festival Theatres is a unique photographic project that captures the Festival theatres in the time of the pandemic. Photographs of the Festival theatres by acclaimed photographer Michalis Kloukinas are placed in dialogue with selected excerpts from plays of the world canon that were originally scheduled for the 2020 programme but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A collector’s edition showcasing beloved venues of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival (Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Peiraios 260) through a contemporary lens, in anticipation of a time when audiences and artists meet again, Marking Time is a palpable, invaluable testament to the absence of live performances, which we have been denied due to the pandemic. This special edition includes forewords by the Artistic Director of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Katerina Evangelatos, and photographer Michalis Kloukinas. Marking Time is available in both Greek and English.

Κυκλοφορεί η 4η μονογραφία του φωτογράφου Ανδρέα Ζαχαράτου, από τις εκδόσεις ΤΟΠΟΣ. Φωτογραφία τεκμηρίωσης ενός εθίμου που έρχεται από τα αρχαία χρόνια και γιορτάζεται την Καθαρά Δευτέρα, αρκετές δεκαετίες τώρα, στο οικογενειακό χωριό των Ντουμέων στα Τριπόταμα Αρκαδίας στη σκιά του Πάρνωνα. Μια μέρα ένα πέταγμα αετού από το πρωί έως το βράδυ σε 16 καρούλια α/μ φιλμ. Μια μέρα που κουβαλάει μια ολόκληρη ζωή. The 4th monograph of photographer Andreas Zacharatos is published by TOPOS publications. Documentary photography of a custom that comes from ancient times and is celebrated on Clean Monday, several decades now in the family village of Doumos in Tripotama, Arcadia, in the shadow of mountain Parnon. One day a kite flying from morning to night on 16 rolls of B/W film. A day that carries within a whole life.

Από τις εκδόσεις ΤΟΠΟΣ κυκλοφορεί η 5η μονογραφία του βραβευμένου Έλληνα φωτογράφου Ανδρέα Ζαχαράτου με τίτλο Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου ‘’Ημερολόγιο Πιάνου‘’. Φωτογραφία δοκίμιο πάνω στην εμβληματική προσωπικότητα του συνθέτη/πιανίστα της Τζάζ & του αυτοσχεδιασμού στην Ελλάδα Σάκη Παπαδημητρίου. Ζήτησα από τον Σάκη Παπαδημητρίου να τον συνοδέψω φωτογραφικά στην σκηνή για δύο βράδια στην Αθήνα το 2014 & 2018. Με το άκουσμα των συνθέσεων του Σάκη Παπαδημητρίου ‘’Piano Voices’’ πάνω στην σκηνή δημιουργήθηκε η σύνδεση του Μουσικού Αυτοσχεδιασμού με την Φωτογραφική δημιουργία. Μέσω της μονογραφίας Sakis Papadimitriou- Piano Diary δίνω στο κοινό την δική μου οπτική προσέγγιση ενός δημιουργού που παραμένει νέος , φρέσκος και μελλοντικός.

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