Vlassis Caniaris draws art and energy from the Greek resistance movement. The politicised artist’s Homage To The Walls Of Athens 1941–19…, 1959 documents the collective struggle against oppression in his native Greece. By Skye Sherwin.
Cry freedom
The letters that scream from a makeshift-looking sackcloth and plaster base have the desperate energy of graffiti in the red of a bloodied handprint. The central “E” hollers at you – E for Ellas (Greece), for Eleftheria (freedom) and for EAM, the resistance movement that challenged the Axis occupation of Greece during the second world war.
Journey without end
Created in 1959, this was not just a work about the past. The dot dot dot in its title suggests ongoing struggles of oppressed peoples, including the military dictatorship that had forced Caniaris to leave Greece.
Image caption: Vlassis Caniaris, Homage to the Walls of Athens 1941-19..., 1959
Plaster-soaked paper and paint on burlap and wood
104 x 114 cm, 41 x 44 7/8 in
Courtesy Christos Larsinos © Vlassis Caniaris
