PRESENTATION: William E. Jones-Fall into Ruin & Villa Iolas

For over three decades William E. Jones has been producing films, videos, photographs, and books that re-examine existing cultural materials. While some of his sources are images and texts housed in archives, he is equally at home out in the world taking pictures and conducting interviews. He has explored the decline of America’s industrial Midwest, the representation of gay men in sources as diverse as Eastern European pornography and police surveillance footage, and poetic connections between the randomized nature of the Internet and ancient philosophy.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Gund Gallery Archive

The presentation “Fall into Ruin – Villa Iolas” at Gund Gallery at Kenyon College investigates the recurring characteristics and themes that have become strong authorial markers in his practice: the use of archival material, queer representation, and socio-political narratives in mainstream media.  With “Villa Iolas” and “Fall into Ruin”, Jones shares his first account as a young man traveling internationally to visit art collector and dealer, Alexander Iolas, in Greece. “Villa Iolas” is a series of photographs portraying Iolas’s impressive collection, which Jones documented in 1982. As an art collector, dealer, and gallery owner, Iolas contributed to the establishment of surrealism in the United States and, to a certain extent, to the acceptance of pop art overall. Active between the 1940s and the 1980s, Alexander Iolas was known for his association with the Surrealists, and for giving Andy Warhol his first solo exhibition in 1952—this resulted in a life-long friendship. He also contributed in forming and advising on the collection of the great art patrons John and Dominique de Menil. The photographs are exhibited alongside “Fall into Ruin”, a short film shot in 2006 when the artist visited the ruins of Iolas’s estate. Reflecting on the state of Iolas’s collection after his passing in 1987 from AIDS-related complications, Jones offers a poignant homage to the life of the Egyptian-Greek gallerist.  In the 1960s, Iolas began traveling to Greece often, where he also considered founding a museum for modern Greek art. This was when the jet-setting art dealer began building his famous villa in the Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi. This turned out to be a palace of 18,300 square feet, where he planned to house his priceless collection of art and antiquities. His dream to construct a museum of Greek contemporary art never materialized; however, Iolas sparked the founding of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, to which he donated a large number of artworks from his own collection. When the collector finally completed his mansion in Agia Paraskevi, he brought over and installed his huge collection of antiquities, as well as Byzantine and modern art. His vast collections also included tapestries, furniture, and other objects of great artistic and monetary value. The villa where all these treasures were housed was more like a palace. Designed by famous architects and decorated by artists, it became the place where famous dinners and parties took place, with the guests always prominent members of the art world, the international jet set, politicians, writers, and fashion designers. The parties Iolas held at his estate soon became the stuff of legend. At the same time, however, they were targeted by the yellow press. The daily paper began a ruthless attack against Iolas, criticizing his sexuality, he was openly gay,  and his many excesses. This all began in 1983 after “Woman: magazine interviewed the art collector. It was an interview in which Iolas badmouthed his friends, from Yannis Tsarouchis to Melina Merkouri, as well as figures from the entire political sphere and Greek art world. Those in power, especially the press, never forgave Iolas for this indiscretion. Slanderous reports on Iolas in the yellow press portrayed him as an antiquities smuggler, a drug user, and even a pedophile. Many Greeks soon chose to view the eccentric art collector in a different light than they previously had, and he eventually became persona non grata in society. Following his death in 1987 from AIDS, his sister Niki Stifel and his deceased brother’s daughter, Eleni Koutsoudi-Iola, became the heirs to his estate. The women attempted to sell the entire Alexandros Iolas estate to a developer, but the Ministry of Culture put a stop to their plans, as the villa was marked a site of Greek cultural heritage. Ironically, even after that declaration, Iolas’ wish to turn his collection into a museum was  never acted upon by the Greek government. As a result, the priceless collection was looted piece by piece, and the villa has endured extensive vandalism throughout the years. The empty house was completely vandalized and today stands as a modern ruin. Fall into Ruin sees Jones return to the sites he first visited at the age of 19 and revisit the story of Alexander Iolas through views of his villa in its current ruined state, shots of contemporary Athens and antiquities on display at the National Archaeological Museum, as well as the original photographs Jones took of Villa Iolas in 1982, also exhibited at The Modern Institute along with the film.

Photo: William E. Jones, Fall Into Ruin, 2017 (still), High definition video,, Duration: 30 mins,, Edition of 6, © William E. Jones, Courtesy the artist and The Gund Gallery

Info: The Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, 101 ½ College Drive, Gambier, Ohio, USA, Duration: 19/8-10/12/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-17:00, Sat-sun 13:00-17:00, www.thegundgallery.org/