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CHRYSSA VARDEA / dit: CHRYSSA (Greece, Athens b. 1933 / act: New York & Athens) |
Born 1933 in Athens, Greece, Chryssa Vardea, known professionally as Chryssa, became a U.S. citizen and earned a reputation for her sculptured assemblages utilizing light from neon, and plexiglas combined with mixed media pieces. One of her pieces, Untitled Light Sculpture (1980) is 22 feet long and is installed in the atrium of a building at 33 Monroe Street in Chicago. It was programmed electronically to create changing patterns of reflected light through 900 feet of neon tubing.Chryssa's sculptures with precision and definite form were a reaction against the prevalent Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s with its emphasis purely upon the artist's intent. In her work, the focus is on materials and the way they are shaped for specific use by craftsmen.
Chryssa got her early education in Athens, and first studied to be a social worker. She was then sent by the Greek Ministry of Social Welfare to the Dodecanese Islands and later to the Ionian Sea island of Zante, whose population had suffered great loss from earthquakes. Disillusioned that monies were being provided to restore monasteries but not to help other earthquake victims, Chryssa changed her life's direction to become a painter. In Athens, she studied art with Angelos Prokopiou.
Subsequently Chryssa went to Paris, France, and studied briefly at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and associated with surrealists André Breton, Edgard Varèse, and Max Ernst. In 1954, she moved to San Francisco, California for a year of study at the California School of Fine Arts, and there she first saw the work of Jackson Pollock, which had a freeing affect on her and inspired her to experiment with pure form. But later she reacted against action painting with her assemblage sculptures of controlled precision.
In 1955, Chryssa settled in New York City, and became the first artist to incorporate neon light tubing and commercial signs into sculpture, It is asserted that her "mature work grew out of the Greek experience, before and after the Second World War, wedded to the raucous letters, signs, symbols, and lights of Time Square, New York City" (Heller 125). In fact, she was so taken with the lights of Times Square that she unsuccessfully tried to get a job as a sign maker but was prevented by labor union rules. However, one of the members gave her sign-making lessons in his shop.
Chryssa first made Pop images such as depictions of automobile tires and cigarettes and in sculptures, utilized letters of the alphabet, ideas that predated similar images by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. Her first major work of interwoven light and letters was Times Square Sky of 1962, but she was dissatisfied because she thought the piece was too crowded. To create a sense of breathing, she inserted neon light, and for the first time, this material became an art medium.
From that time, Chryssa was prolific and created many variations based on the letters W and A. For her, a primary motivating factor was remaining cool or mentally collected amidst the onslaught of bombarding information and to process it through her creations in new ways so that nothing was repeated. She set up her own work place in a vacant building and did much of her own hard physical labor, although she did employ glass blowers and foundries. A major effort was a piece titled The Gates of Times Square. Timers were programmed to turn the lights on and off, and black glass cases gave a sense of night. Her goal was to achieve a wide range of emotions from fear to pure joy, and it is alleged that she was not always cool or joyful with others when she was at work. Her reputation has been that of a driving task master with results that have brought her much acclaim.
In 1972, Chryssa was given a one-person show at the Whitney Museum, one of many prestigious one-person exhibition venues that included the Guggenheim Museum (1961), Harvard University (1968), and the Musée de l'Art Moderne in Paris.
[Megakles 08/2005]
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
HELLER, JULES; HELER, NANCY North American Women Artists of the 20th Century 1995 Garland Publishing, New York
RUBINSTEIN, CHARLOTTE STREIFER American Women Artists: From the Indian to the Present 1982 Avon Books, New York
