SIANTI GALLERY is presenting a group exhibition titled Black Humour – The Revolution of the Spirit, which runs till November 2. Curator of the exhibition is Hera Papapostolou, critic and historian of Art, who wishes to remind us that, as it has been scientifically proven, laughter as a cultural phenomenon is connected to various social and historical groups of people.

She herself discerns various types of humour: spontaneous humour, blunt humour, surrealistic humour, satire, parody, self-sarcasm, as well as black humour. In this last type of humour, the intended witticism or satire refers to negative events or situations, and is more vulnerable to rejection

The curator underlines in the catalogue of the exhibition: «As Otto Hahn once wrote, the History of the Arts does not usually include instances of humour. Only artists like Calder, Miro, Dubuffet or Tinguely have the boldness of introducing humour into the museums. The reason is quite simple: joy is not part of grand sentiments. Painters and sculptors leave this area to cartoonists and graphic designers, who are considered to be second-rate artists – and rightly so”.

Yet, is this true nowadays? The idea of humour itself is somewhat new. In its contemporary form, it makes its first appearance in England, in 1682. But, what does it really mean in our contemporary world? Does it connote a kind of sadness, which is being transformed into a bad or a good joke? Could it be the ultimate revolution of the spirit? It may be so. The only thing that we are certain of, is that it liberates and elevates us. “Freud once said it’s time we got familiar with many characteristics of humour. Humour is not liberating only from a spiritual or a comic point of view, it also includes something majestic and elevating, signs which cannot be retraced in these two classes of pleasure-seeking through intellectual activity […]”.

Contemporary Greek painters use the concept of humour in their works, but in which form? Is it an underlying kind of humour, a sort of didactic humour, sarcastic humour, a paradox or an irony? Is it the kind of humour that satires current events? And whom is it addressed to? Is it addressed to the intellectual elite or just everybody? Does black humour even exist in Greek painting? Fourteen contemporary artists are here to tell us that it does, each of them using it in his/her own particular way, in order to produce unique works especially created for this exhibition.

Participating artists (in alphabetical order): Georgiopoulou Vicki, Theocharis Stamatis, Kavounis Giorgos, Kontouris Michalis, Lavdas Kostas, Missouras Tassos, Belivanaki Lila, Boviantsou Labrini, Papadimitriou Vivi, Perros Vassilis, Pistonis Achilleas, Siagris Panagiotis, Siskos Nikos, Fotiadou Sofia.

• ‘Black Humour – the Revolution of the Spirit’ runs till November 2 at Sianti Gallery (2 Vass. Alexandrou and Michalakopoulou St., Athens (Behind the National Gallery). T: 210 7245432, 210 3648335. Email: info@siantigallery.com. Web: https://bit.ly/SPIRITREVOLUTIONBLACKHUMOR

• Public hours of Sianti Gallery: Tuesday – Thursday- Friday 10:00-20:00; Wednesday 10:00-15:00; Saturday 10:00-16:00; Closed on Sunday and Monday.

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