Theodoros Stamos (Greek, 1922-1997) Infinity Fields Lefkada Series 178 x 162.5 cm.
151
Theodoros Stamos (Greek, 1922-1997)
Infinity Fields Lefkada Series
signed, titled and dated ‘INFINITY FIELDS LEFKADA SERIES 1980 STAMOS’ (on the overlap)
acrylic on canvas
178 x 162.5 cm.
Sold for £57,600 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance:
    Dorsky Gallery, New York.

    One of the founders of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, with a strong showing in major European and American art institutions, Theodoros Stamos was a visionary of subtle colour-field landscapes invested with a sense of spirituality. Vibrant and dynamically balanced, his canvases give birth to a life-affirming, magical light emanating from within, while, in a subdued dialogue, his brilliantly coloured Infinity fields - immense spaces that seem to extend beyond the limits of the frame - recapture the pantheism of his childhood and narrate stories about Greek light and his beloved island of Lefkada. 1 “Stamos is not a nature lover, nor a landscape painter, but a mystic. His relationship to nature is very deep, very old and very holy, allowing him to pass, through the lens of a magic microscope, from the macrocosm to the microcosm. These are Stamos’ Infinity fields.” 2

    Dore Ashton, one of America’s foremost art critics and leading authority on Abstract Expressionism, notes: “Since his first visit to Greece, Stamos had been enchanted with the country’s physical light. The isle of Lefkada, where his father was born, certainly shaped a new vision of the significance of landscape for him. Conveying a deep and sacred silence, his Infinity series moves deeply into the mystery of the universe. Stamos creates a sequence of varied metaphors for the earth itself with its incalculable spaces (sea and sky), threatening or enchanting the field in which human emotions play. We, the spectators, are behind him, contemplating his vision of wholeness or rapture; of darkness and silence; of veiled light and event. Beneath the final surface on these thinly painted images is a history that sometimes emerges in the form of barely traceable calligraphic signs; sometimes in the form of a carefully modulated edge, ever so slightly pulled away from the ground to reveal yet another depth.” 3

    1. See M. Lambraki-Plaka, “Theodoros Stamos, Odysseus of Infinity Fields” in Theodoros Stamos - a Retrospective, exh. cat., National Gallery and Al. Soutzos Museum, Athens, 1997, pp. 16-17 and H. Kambouridis - G. Levounis, Modern Greek Art - The Twentieth Century, Athens 1999, p. 266.
    2. as quoted in Kambouridis - Levounis, p. 297. See also A. Kafetsi “The Infinity Fields” in Theodos Stamos - a Retrospective, pp. 313-315.
    3. D. Ashton, Stamos, exh. cat., Kouros Gallery, New York 1985, pp. 4-5.

Category: Fine Art / Greek Art

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