Retrospective exhibition of George Kotsonis in Limassol

As part of its activities aimed at presenting visual artists that defined the evolution of Cypriot art, The Limassol Municipal Arts Centre – Apothikes Papadaki will hold a retrospective exhibition of Giorgos Kotsonis this December, January and February.

“With the penetration and accuracy of an introspective look, revealing the quintessence in form and colour, focusing on the unchanging and everlasting rather than the transient nature of things, George Kotsonis filters human figures and scenes from the natural or built environment, through an infallible detachment in perspective that transforms them into spaceless and timeless monumental compositions,” curator Dr Natia Anaxagorou said. “His landscapes and seascapes, the rocks and the shores, the houses and churches of Cyprus, the female nudes and portraits, posed in recollection, contemplation, relaxation, erotic mystification or maternal ecstasy, are worked out in abstract realism, with a minimalist palette, condensed to earthly gradations, sharply stated cold and warm contrasts and a suggestive, flat shadowing.

“Animate and inanimate forms are therefore turned into self-luminous entities,” she continued, “diffusing light and transparency all over and bestowing upon their surroundings a metaphysical dimension, reminiscent of Byzantine painting.” Albeit monochromatic, the background comprises infinite and successive layers of strokes, laid on the canvas with meticulous attendance, imparting colour a manifold richness, imbuing it with pulse, vivacity and contributing decisively to the desired effect of a discrete, imperceptible mobility, which is echoed in a plain, geometric segmentation of the painterly surface.

“Synthetic cubism, which is characteristic of his entire work, permeates his mythological representations and infuses a vision of rhythmic functioning of the whole and its constituent parts, in both his iconography, his mosaics as well as his sculptures, which bear the familiar, straightforward layout of a dialectically articulated structure and a deliberately harnessed expression.

“Dexterity in drawing,” she concluded, “chiselled through European trends and Byzantine influences, crystallizes in balance and perfection in form, in a unique sense of harmony, ambience and subtleness in light, in sublime serenity and tranquility. It is precisely through these qualities that George Kotsonis’ art rises to the very embodiment of transcendental realism in Cyprus.”

Giorgos Kotsonis

Retrospective exhibition of Cypriot artist. December 16-February 4. Limassol Municipal Arts Centre – Apothikes Papadaki, Limassol. Opening event: 6pm. Tuesday-Friday: 10am-6pm. Saturday:10am-2pm. Tel: 25-367700