Clouds
Vakalo Georgios (1902-1991)
1978 | 48 x 65 cm
Oil on canvas
Museum of Contemporary Art
MCA.MMCA.C82
Donation of Eleni Vakalo
ARTWORK DETAILS
Type: Painting
Subject: Surrealism, Painting
Art techniques: Oil painting
ARTWORK DESCRIPTION
The thematic range of George Vakalo's paintings includes landscapes, plants, birds, fantastical creatures, underwater scenes, abstract compositions and it operates within the framework of a unique poetic surrealism. His diverse combinations, otherworldly atmospheres, dreamlike dimensions of space, combined with meticulous attention to detail, restrained colour palettes, and an apparent decorative disposition, characterize his works. These artworks narrate paradoxical and unexpected stories. The painting "Clouds" is associated with the artist's final period of creation, where forms emerge from the very material itself through the process of its manipulation, combining the surrealistic background of his style with fluid, rhythmic forms.
CREATOR
Georgios Vakalo (Vakalopoulos) was born in 1902 in Constantinople, where he attended his first lessons in painting and miniature under Lysandros Prasinos. He then studied decorative art at the École des Arts Decoratifs and at the Grand Chaumière and Julian Academies in Paris (1922-1928). He also studied stage design at Charles Dullin's Theatre de l'Atelier, with whom he worked during the 1930s and apprenticed as a set designer under Ladislas Medgyes. He also worked as a set designer at the Globe Theatre in London. After 1942 he settled in Greece and continued his stage design work alongside his painting. In 1953 he was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour by the French government. He was a founding member of the "Stathmi" group (1949) and in 1957 he founded, together with P. Tetsis, F. Frantziskakis and E. Vakalo, the first School of Decorative Arts in Greece, where he taught until 1978.