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16
Costas VAROTSOS
Greek, born 1955

Circle
steel and glass

signed and numbered 8/15 on the base
height 53 cm, width 46 cm, depth 8 cm


PROVENANCE

private collection, Athens


sold for 1,767.75 €

Costas Varotsos was born in Athens in 1955.

 

He first studied painting at the Academia di Belli Arti in Rome between 1973 and 1976 and then architecture at Scuola di Architettura in Pescara between 1976 and 1981. Later (1990-1991), he was awarded a Fullbright scholarship for New York.

 

His work, beginning from the late 1970s, is a fruit of contemporary reflection and overlook the language of art, its possibilities of communication with the viewer and criticism of modernism.

 

Varotsos believes art is an active and driving force of society. Art can express reality and play a social role, as long as it restores its communication with the viewer. He concentrates in his work the sense of surrounding historical atmosphere in monumental images-symbols that emerge from the unconscious and are characterized by the economy of their form.

 

The study of the configuration of space and the balance of space-time in nature is aided by the use of transparent materials such as polyester, plastics, plexiglass, glass and water. This can be especially witnessed in his outdoor, large-scale works such as the 'Poet' (1983) in Nicosia, the ‘Runner’ (1988-1994) in Athens and ‘La Morgia’ (1996-1997) in Gessopalena, Italy.

 

In 1999 he was elected a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in 2004 was awarded by the Italian government the ‘Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana’.

 

Varotsos presented his work in many solo exhibitions such as at the Mauric Renaissance Art, Pescara (1978 and 1980); the Arco di Rab Gallery, Rome (1989); the Ruben Forni Gallery, Brussels (1990); the Giorgio Persano Gallery, Milan (1991); the Lehman Gallery, New York (1992); the Sprovieri Gallery, Rome (1993) and Giorgio Persano Gallery, Turin (1995). Additionally, he participated in a large number of group exhibitions in Greece and abroad such as the Europalia, Antwerp (1982); the 'Seven Greek Artists - A New Voyage', Nicosia (1983); the Barcelona Biennale (1985); the 'Five Artists towards the Myth. Greece in our Hearts’, Stockholm (1986); the Sao Paolo Biennale (1987); the 'Arte Domani', Spoleto and 'De Europa', Trapani (1991); the 'Sculptures de Verre', Nice (1994) and the Venice Biennale (1995 and 1999).

 

His work can be found in many public and private collections, notably: The National Gallery of Greece, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rhodes Municipal Gallery, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Nice and the Museum of Rouen.