ART CITIES:Paris-Takis
An inventor as much as an artist, an “Intuitive Scientist” as he defines himself, a contemporary avant-garde artist but also a scientific philosopher drawing from the most important ancestors of pre-Socratic philosophy and from Hippocratic to Ancient Egyptian medicine, Takis (Panagiotis Vassilakis) is a major figure in post-war sculpture.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Xippas Gallery Archive
Takis deeply original formal vocabulary is inseparable from the magnetic field energy that underlies his entire oeuvre. Fascinated by modern technology, by radars detecting metallic objects in the cosmos and by invisible waves that transmit messages and sounds, he opted for magnetism when he invented the “Télésculptures”. Takis is most certainly the artist of his generation that was most able to unite art and science, paving the way for all sorts of artistic directions in the ensuing decades. In his solo exhibition “Black And White. The Fourth Dimension” at Xippas Gallery in Paris, Takis presents emblematic works, such as “Magnetic Walls”, as well as a “Musical”, works which span the entirety of his career to the present day. Inspired by natural phenomena and the industrial development of the age, Takis used electromagnetism and, from 1965, created the “Musicals” to produce, in his words, the music of spheres. “Musical” (1972) is made up of a wooden panel on the back of which is an electromagnetic magnet which attracts and repels a suspended needle. The needle strikes a string which is stretched on the panel and produces a strong and distinctive sound according to the random rhythm of the magnetic waves, creating mysterious music. “Magnetic Walls” continues with this quest, by transposing it into the field of painting, where metallic forms subjected to magnets fixed on the back of the canvas are attracted to the surface of the paint. These elements are linked to the canvas by the sole strength of the magnet and can therefore be moved at will by the spectator. The canvas becomes a progressive and participative installation which interrogates the place of the spectator and the random nature of form. Takis was only 20 when he sent to prison in 1945 for six months for his involvement in the youth wing of the leftist resistance. The year 1952 was pivotal, τogether with Minos Argyrakis and Raymondos he builds a small studio in Athens, here Takis learned to forge and weld iron, a working process that allowed him to move his sculpture away from a derivative figuration, and he moved to Paris. There he quickly encountered Yves Klein and the other artists who became known as the Nouveaux Realistes. Soon after, he met Gregory Corso and through him befriended expatriate American Beats. Takis combined magnetism and cathodes in his “Télélumières”, begun in 1961. In 1969 he tried to physically remove one of his sculptures from a group show at MoMA in New York to protest a number of the museum’s policies. His action precipitated the founding of the Art Workers’ Coalition. Though peripatetic, he has always remained connected to Greece, and now lives there.
Info: Xippas Gallery, 108 rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, Duration: 9/9-19/10/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00, Sat 10:00-19:00, www.xippas.com
