Footnotes

• Ranking among Greek art’s most famous and compelling images from the last quarter of the 20th century, Theofylaktopoulos’ solitary motorcyclists convey a sense of freedom and adventure and an enduring spirit of perennial escape and passionate, unending youth. “When riding my bike”, says the artist, “everything swims in motion -outer and inner- and reality is shattered, transformed into pure energy flowing through my muscles, my nerves, my hands.”¹
  
  Looming out of a dark, monochromatic background and headed directly for the viewer at full throttle, this impetuous biker from the early 1970s epitomizes the pictorial qualities that established Theofylaktopoulos’ reputation as a prominent exponent of European neo-expressionism long before it became a mainstream trend in the 1980s.² By using intense lines, vehement brushwork and gestural application of paint, the painter identifies the expressive power of his materials with his own inner energy and expressive thrust.<sup>3
  
  1.</sup> Quoted in Makis Theofylaktopoulos, exh. cat., Municipal Gallery of Rhodes, Olkos publ., Athens 1987, p. 25.
  ^2. See H. Kambouridis - G. Levounis, Modern Greek Art - The 20th Century, Athens 1999, p. 232
  ^3. See M. Christofoglou in Dictionary of Greek Artists [in Greek], vol. 4, Melissa publ., Athens 1999, p. 22.
  

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Category: Fine Art / Greek Art

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