IN HIS EXHIBITION at a.antonopoulou.art, Mark Hadjipateras is showing a series of acrylic on canvas paintings, small, medium & large. The works were all created in 2024. They are the most abstract works the artist has made to date. Mostly square & rectangular shapes, and lines, rendered in bright colours, which bear testament to the artist’s worship of colour yet one more time. Absent are any references to anything representational, or to nature, horizons or other motifs we saw in his earlier paintings in 2022.

 

As the art critic and curator Christoforos Marinos had noted earlier:

“Mark Hadjipateras’s recent output reveals his ongoing interest in the art of colour. In this new series of paintings, the artist openly appropriates the colour palette of abstract modernist paintings. His paintings pay homage to leading exponents of American abstraction, as well as leading exponents of European modernism. The inventive use of colour and emotional exuberance on offer in these artists’ paintings engendered the concept of bold appropriation attempted by Hadjipateras and his development of a new, utterly personal iconography. The outcome of extensive research, this series communicates Hadjipateras’s sustained engagement with the contribution of colour to establishing, sustaining, and helping decipher the modern. Modernist artists’ colours are especially attractive because they have an inherent potential for transformation. The smoothness and fluidity that the colours imbue on the forms, their capacity to evoke space and conjure volumes and multiple planes, and, above all, the symbolic nature of colour and its influence on psychology, are the artist’s main fields of investigation. Mark Hadjipateras’s paintings celebrate colour by highlighting its positive value. Essentially, his paintings convey a sense of joy and fulfil the fundamental need for visual pleasure. On the whole, Hadjipateras seeks to produce impactful works that become emblazoned on the viewer’s retina.”

During the exhibition, on Monday November 18th, the artist’s new book – monograph “Mark Hadjipateras – Homeward” will be held at the gallery at 18:30. The speakers will be art historian Alexandra Koroxenidi and the curator & art historian Yannis Bolis. The texts for the book have been contributed by Alexandra Koroxenidi and art critic & poet Barry Schwabsky. The foreword has been written by Chrisopher Hudson, head of publications at the MoMa 2005-2020, who states:

“Hadjipateras has carefully studied the twentieth century masters. This does not mean the work is derivative but that there is a frankly expressed awareness of context, which should be the condition of an artist working internationally today.

It is notable that, to my eye, some of the artist’s very best work is being made now. The joy and colour exuberance of the late paintings, beginning in 2011 but continuing right through to the present, is contagious.

What shines through practically all the pieces, though, is a basic humanity and geniality. Whether I interrogate every allusion or ambiguity in the work or not, I am left feeling pretty good after I spend time with it. Art can be enjoyable, and what I get most from these paintings is an abiding sense of real pleasure.”

• Mark Hadjipateras’s solo exhibition ‘Colour exuberance’ at a.antonopoulou.art (20 Aristofanous St, Psyrri), opens on October 17, 7-10pm, and runs through November 23. Opening hours Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 2-8pm and Saturday 12-4pm.