Chryssa Romanos (1931–2006) was one of the most significant Greek artists to emerge in the 1960s. She belongs to that group of Greek expat intellectuals who lived and worked in the artistic centres of the West and, for the very first time in the history of Greek art, actively participated in formulating international artistic movements of their era. The twenty years that Romanos spent in France (1961–1981) proved decisive for moulding her artistic identity. She was part of the circle of the influential critic Pierre Restany and the Nouveau Realistes and was one of the important female figures in the Paris art scene of the 1960s.
Open-ended narrative structures, mechanical reproduction, randomness, transparency, and the notion of play characterise her body of work. From her very first works, the motif of the labyrinth, the critique of consumerism, the political interest in social inequalities and injustice, the democratisation of art, the osmosis of art and everyday life, and the interest in travel recur as main thematic axes, and evolve as the artist herself matures and her social and political environment transforms.
The exhibition “The Search for Happiness for as Many as Possible” includes works from almost all periods of her oeuvre, highlighting their correlation and relationship. At the same time, it situated the works in their historical, political, and social context. The exhibition parcours begins with Myths, the paintings originating from the period when she left for Paris. It continues with the historical collages of 1965; the grand Meccano sculptural constructions, inspired kit toys of the same name typically intended for boys; silkscreen prints from the famed Mec Art Graphic atelier in Paris; and culminates into her most mature works, the Maps-Labyrinths, with their notable décollage technique on Plexiglas. Finally, it concludes with a video work based on the rich photographic archive of Chryssa Romanos and her husband, the equally influential artist and Athens School of Fine Arts professor Nikos Kessanlis, emphasising the indissoluble and reciprocal relationship between art and life.
The exhibition title is derived from a text by the eminent French theorist Pierre Restany found in a catalogue devoted to Chryssa Romanos and brings to the surface both the emotional and political dimensions of her work.
Curated by
Eleni Koukou and Dimitris Tsoumplekas
at EMST, Athens
until October 27, 2024