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Pavlos Dionysopoulos / dit: PAVLOS (Greece, Peloponnese Philiatra b. 1930 / act: Athens) |
Pavlos was born Pavlos Dionysopoulos in 1930 at Philiatra, in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. In 1947 his family settled in Athens, and Pavlos studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1949-1953). Thanks to a scholarship from the French State, he travelled to Paris for the first time in 1954. Returning to Greece in 1955, he worked in the theatre and advertising. In 1958 Pavlos won a Greek state scholarship for a three-year stay in Paris. In 1960 Pavlos took a studio in the Rue de Vaugirard in Paris. He came face to face at that time with the works of the Nouveaux Réalistes group, which had just been set up by Pierre Restany (1930-2003). He became friends with some of the members of the group, particularly with Raymond Hains (1926-2005), whom he met in 1961. In 1963 Pavlos exhibited a his 'affiches massicotées' at the Salon Réalités Nouvelles. On October 1964 he presented his first personal exhibition of posters at the Galerie J, Paris. On the occasion Claude Riviere's wrote in the Combat newspaper of 26 October: "Pavlos, whom we encountered this year in Munich and Venice, presents us with works made of misprinted posters, which, cut up by the massicot, give by their accumulation a material and colour value. Pavlos stresses that posters, presented in profile, are much more expressive than they are when they are presented in flat form, as Rotella does". In an article in 'L'Express' of 4 October1965, which was highly critical of the Paris Biennale, Otto Hahn referred to the role of Pavlos as one of the rare "clearings [in this] inter-continental journey". His participation was also noted in Le Monde by Michael Contil-Lacoste, who drew attention to the colour effects of an unexpected density. From 1966 onwards the strips of paper from the poster, cut up by machinery (massicotées) are folded, suggesting the shape of some everyday object, such as a bunch of flowers, a corset, a sandwich. Otto Hahn, in an account of the Paris artistic movement and of the dynamic rise of Mec Art, wrote in 'Art and Artists' of May 1966: "one of the most poetic spirits among these pioneers is Pavlos, a Greek who lives in Paris and produces his work on the basis of industrial materials, cut-up posters or metal wire". At his first exhibition at the Ileana Sonnabend Gallery in 1968, Pavlos exhibited four columns made from massicot paper, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, and the curtains which completely covered the surface of the walls on which they were exhibited. On February 1971 Pavlos exhibited at the Galerie Sonnabend, Paris. On March 1972 Pavlos presented his first retrospective exhibition at the Kunstverein, Hanover. On the occasion of the opening of Pavlos's retrospective exhibition at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, on July 1972, Manfred de la Motte delivered the inaugural address. This was followed by a concert by Hans-Christian von Dadelsen for 59 birds with a woodland accompaniment. On November 1972 Pavlos, together with Siri Hustvedt, James Rosenquist, Jeff Soto, and other artists, presented his wood at the Paris Festival in the Grand Palais. On the occasion of the Still Lifes exhibition at the Galerie Iolas on March In 1973 Pierre Faveton published an important article for Pavlos in the periodical 'Connaissance des Arts'. On October 1973 Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne presented Pavlos new collection of Still Lifes. On March 1974, Marzona Gallery in Bielefeld presented Pavlos: Still Lifes. On August 1974, Pavlos, dressed in a frock-coat and holding a shoeblack' s box, undertook to polish the shoes of tourists on the harbour at Hydra island. On April 1979 Vogue photographs its models in front of sculptures by Takis and Pavlos. In 1980 Greece devotes the whole of its pavilion at the Venice Biennale to Pavlos, who produces an installation of his latest works in bolduc. When the institution of Cultural Capitals of Europe was inaugurated in 1985 in Athens, Pavlos held an exhibition of flags of the Community at the Pierides Gallery. Jana Markova made a 30-minute film in Athens, Philiatra and Paris on the subject of Pavlos and his works for German ZDF television. In 1988, after the first period of abstraction, which was followed by a period devoted to the object, Pavlos looked anew at nature - its plants and water. He made waves out of torn paper and grass out of fine strips of paper. These artworks gave the opportunity to Pavlos to reveal himself as a great colourist. On October 1991 Galerie Guy Pieters held a personal exhibition of Pavlos in the context of the FIAC, which was received with great ethusiasm by the public. On September 1992 the city of Paris held a small retrospective exhibition of Pavlos in the chapel of the Sorbonne entitled Thirty Years of Paper. In 1996 the Petros and Marika Kydoniefs Foundation at Andros Island presented Pavlos: In Another Reality. In 1997 The J.F. Costopoulos Foundation organised the first retrospective exhibition of Pavlos in Greece. In May 1997 the Macedonian Museum of Modern Art, in Thessaloniki, exhibited artworks by Pavlos in the context of Thessaloniki European Cultural Capital. In the fall of 1997 this exhibition travelled to The Factory, of the Athens School of Fine Arts.[Megakles Rogakos 08/2008]
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