2015 A TRIBUTE TO GRUPPO SIGMA
55 Years Later... A Tribute to "Gruppo ΣΙΓΜA"
CANIARIS, CONDOS, NIKOS, TSOCLIS, AND GAΪTIS
CANIARIS, CONDOS, NIKOS, TSOCLIS, AND GAΪTIS
This summer the Costas Tsoclis Museum, alongside its permanent exhibition of works by Costas Tsoclis, will host a Tribute to "Gruppo ΣΙΓΜΑ”, which was founded in 1958 by five young, ambitious and revolutionary Greek painters: Caniaris, Condos, Nikos, Tsoclis, and Gaïtis.The Museum will thus expand its activities and offer its visitors yet another opportunity to appreciate the course of modern Greek Art.
These five young artists, reacting to the stale and uninspiring artistic atmosphere that prevailed in Greece at that time, departed as 'cultural emigrants' and established themselves in Rome.
There they worked for some years and formed an association, the Gruppo ΣΙΓΜΑ, with the purpose of drawing attention to itself and to its Greek identity within international art circles, a thing that had not until then occurred in the world of Greek visual art. Linking themselves to the artistic community of Rome, the five artists developed, some more than others, a certain energy. Although, as a group, they mounted only two exhibitions, one at the Galleria San Carlo in Naples, and the other at the Galleria Il Cancello in Bologna, they did not pass unnoticed.
Carlo Barbieri, in the newspaper 'Il Mattino' of 31/12/1959, dedicated his review to the Gruppo and noted characteristically :
'... Since the recent revelation of the Spanish painters and sculptors that was the pride of the last Biennale of Venice, we have not had the good fortune of such a pleasant surprise.These Greek painters, as bearers of their past, are bound to ambitions, problems and questions that develop steadily in the sphere of authentic current events...... Greece follows other countries into the international arena, but without denying its past.'
The five, then young, artists dared, not as individuals but as a group with a national identity, to claim a place in the domain of international modern Art. Rather than importing Art into our country, they exported passion for participation in the wider world. 'They knew that only in this way could they justify their creative existence,' says Tsoclis, who has dedicated this exhibition to the memory of the Gruppo.It is our wish and hope that this combined effort of Gruppo ΣΙΓΜΑ will pass beyond the borders of Greece and take its place in the locale and the historical moment when it was born.
These five young artists, reacting to the stale and uninspiring artistic atmosphere that prevailed in Greece at that time, departed as 'cultural emigrants' and established themselves in Rome.
There they worked for some years and formed an association, the Gruppo ΣΙΓΜΑ, with the purpose of drawing attention to itself and to its Greek identity within international art circles, a thing that had not until then occurred in the world of Greek visual art. Linking themselves to the artistic community of Rome, the five artists developed, some more than others, a certain energy. Although, as a group, they mounted only two exhibitions, one at the Galleria San Carlo in Naples, and the other at the Galleria Il Cancello in Bologna, they did not pass unnoticed.
Carlo Barbieri, in the newspaper 'Il Mattino' of 31/12/1959, dedicated his review to the Gruppo and noted characteristically :
'... Since the recent revelation of the Spanish painters and sculptors that was the pride of the last Biennale of Venice, we have not had the good fortune of such a pleasant surprise.These Greek painters, as bearers of their past, are bound to ambitions, problems and questions that develop steadily in the sphere of authentic current events...... Greece follows other countries into the international arena, but without denying its past.'
The five, then young, artists dared, not as individuals but as a group with a national identity, to claim a place in the domain of international modern Art. Rather than importing Art into our country, they exported passion for participation in the wider world. 'They knew that only in this way could they justify their creative existence,' says Tsoclis, who has dedicated this exhibition to the memory of the Gruppo.It is our wish and hope that this combined effort of Gruppo ΣΙΓΜΑ will pass beyond the borders of Greece and take its place in the locale and the historical moment when it was born.
Share:
