Nikos Kessanlis

NIKOS KESSANLIS (Thessaloniki, 1930 - Athens, 2004)
"Moulins".1957.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower margin.
Measurements: 140 x 180 cm.

The painting "Moulins" presents a pictorial field of great dynamism. On a light blue background, forms that evoke propellers or blades in movement are articulated. These forms are deployed by curved lines and arcs in a more intense blue, which seem to rotate around small red nuclei, sometimes with green strokes that intermingle with the background or cross it.

The canvas is not completely covered: white or unpainted areas reveal the texture of the support and generate a sense of air and vibration, reinforcing the idea of movement. The composition is not centered on a single point, but the energy is dispersed in different directions, suggesting a centrifugal or rotating dynamic, almost as if the wind or kinetic energy became visible.

The chromatic palette (blues, reds, greens and whites) creates cold and warm hallmarks, light and shadow, density and emptiness, accentuating the sense of rotation. The brushstroke is free and gestural, close to lyrical abstraction or informalism.

The title "Moulins" orients the reading towards cyclical movement, energy and transformation. The propellers or blades can be interpreted as symbols of vital force, as visual structures of movement itself, a constant preoccupation of post-war European art.

The blue background could allude to space, air or sea, areas where movement is fluid and elusive. The red nuclei, in contrast, anchor the movement, marking centers of energy. The whole ensemble suggests a tension between order and chaos, between structure and spontaneity.

In 1957, Kessalins was at an early stage of abstract experimentation, after his training in Athens and his first years in Rome. He had not yet developed his "Mec-Art" (1960s), in which he would explore the fusion between art and technology through photomechanical procedures and industrial materials.

During the 1950s, however, his painting is placed in the sphere of European Informalism, in dialogue with artists such as Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung or Emilio Vedova. In this phase, Kessanlis seeks to translate pictorial energy into form and color, exploring gesture, rhythm and texture. "Moulins" belongs to this period of lyrical or gestural abstraction, where the main interest is to capture the movement and vibration of the pictorial matter.

Nikos Kessanlis was taught by Spyropoulos and Nikolaou (1944-1948) and studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1950-1955) with Yiannis Moralis. He also attended the School of Art Conservation in Rome (1955-1959) on a scholarship from the Italian Institute of Athens, and simultaneously took classes in mural painting and engraving at the Scuola delle Arti Ornamentali di San Giacomo. In the 1950s, Kessanlis' work reflected the trends of informal art and abstract expressionism. In Paris during the 1960s, he aligned himself ideologically with the New Realists and, together with French colleagues, played a key role in the creation of mec-art. His return to Greece in 1980 as a professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, his term as rector (1991-1995) and the relocation of the Academy's workshops to premises on Peiraios Street attest to his social commitment to the visual arts in Greece. The structure of the image, the importance of gesture and the question of multiple reproduction, as well as the involvement of the viewer in the final result, have been some of his constant concerns throughout his career. He has had more than 30 solo exhibitions, both in Greece and abroad. The Metropolitan Museum of Art of Athens (MMCA) dedicated a major retrospective to him in 1997. He represented Greece at the 1988 Venice Biennale. He also created "Queue for Omonia Square Metro Station" in Athens in 2000. In addition, he has exhibited his work in numerous international group shows, such as "Nouvelles aventures de l'objet" (Paris, 1961) and "Three proposals for a new Greek sculpture" (Venice, 1964). He is an internationally acclaimed artist, who received the Modigliani Prize (1959), an honorary mention at the Sao Paulo Biennial (1961), the Lissone Prize and first prize at the Salon de Montrouge (1997).