The red gloves

"We have become a spectacle to the world".

And the play is, fortunately, doomed to go on. Besides, the human drama has countless acts, that life enacts and art, ingenious, immortalizes in her own devices: with words, with verses or colours and design, as in the case at hand.

Here, the painting process, as an imitation of an action that is serious and complete, finds catharsis, purging, in the crimson paint, the guilty red gloves, the surreal red challenge of a bull, a bull oblivious of colours. Also, in the use of black, the colour of Death, that is lurking everywhere.

In tragedy, the final act is completed away from the viewers' eyes and returns before them as a fait accompli, an accomplished fact.

In painting, the whole dramatic process happens in absentia of the viewer and the result of the preceding action returns to the audience, through the final image, that serves as a revolving stage, revealing in the last act the story that has already occurred. I admit that this recourse emerged unprompted, through a poetic license, by one of Stavros Hatzioannou's works; a work that allows us to imagine the bloodied hands of Lady M. and personify the passion in a timeless drama, where loneliness is multiplied by two and love divided by one.

"All the world's a stage…" and "…all the men and women merely players". So is the viewer. Shakespeare is insurmountable.

And the painter, in his works of art, also a writer in his own way, is called upon to "contribute to the theatre" with images, without words, countless acts where mystery prevails and perplexity hovers, as do the fear behind turned backs.

The hovering question mark finally answered by the art and yet forever unanswered.

Dr. Vivi Vassilopoulou
Archaeologist – Art Critic

Spectroscopes of the definite

“Definite” is a dangerous word, it can lead to treacherous, serpentine pathways. In other words: lead you straight to the Devil’s door. And the Devil has many offspring, one of which is truth –another tricky word, since it is closely related with the ex revelatio presence of zero.

Finally, let’s accept a certain convention, so we can move on, closer to one of the arts, namely painting. This convention is not a covenant of submission but one of perception, assessment, vision, natural sequence. I hope you don’t want to dispute these too. I hope, say I.

Peering at Stavros Hatzioannou’s paintings, I felt I had to state the above, to show that ahead of me lay a perilous world. Perilous, not because of the semantics lounging in the standard landscapes (bulls, masks, theatrical scenes etc.) but because I was enchanted by the eerie and the infernal. The Sirens. The alluring pandering of the colors. The overwhelming movement, rivaling the iconic stillness. All these, instilled a mortal fear in me. A series of postures of an eager troupe, posing for a photograph before resuming their allegorical performance. In this kind of painting, the expected and the implied attempt a frenzied dance. Reaching us like a whirling rainbow. Thankfully, the stark brushstrokes with their broad shape, offer a brief respite from the definite. They save us from flying to the blistering sun, molded in the waxen workshop of Daedalus, illusive, even clueless. Totally unarmed.

In works of art, the creator has both the ability and the prerogative to speak of his intentions, but not of the result. Those who drifted from this axiom paid a dear price. May the current exhibitor, Stavros Hatzioannou, not do the same. And he shall not. The reason is blatantly obvious: his intentions are honestly manifested. The reason is easy to understand. I think he grew weary, bored and jaded watching the vacuum of post-modernism. Sailing though the territorial waters of Symbolism, he gave his bold report to the itinerant coast guard and entered respected, free and unrestrained as any who hasn’t stolen fruit from another’s property. In the entirety of the painter’s work, there is –albeit underlying- a dramatic rage: the narcissism and the carelessness devour each other, like meteors, leaving behind blazes of spatial exhaustion, meaning: fodder for the demanding PREDATORY FIELD. Because this field is predatory, lurking in hidden perches, wherever there is a pass. Pass and passage for both mortals and not. Those who attempt to fill it, inevitably lose their minds, their dignity, be they Scientists or Artists. The inner wisdom of this present painting lies in the economy of space and color.

Nothing like the (artistic license): …I do what I like and I don’t care if you like what I do! I am always attracted by the universal measure. I envy those who succeed in attaining it. This is why I decided to write a few words about Stavros Hatzioannou and I apologize if I overstepped my boundaries. As for me, I immersed myself in his color-pools and I wander restlessly in his diabolic “landscapes”, from first plan to the last!

Michalis Bourboulis

Where the metaphysical becomes palpable...

The totally graphic -in appearance only- works of Stavros Hatzioannou are in essence peculiarly abstract, since they are incarnated-molded through a purely metaphysical atmosphere. An atmosphere radiating all around them, challenging the viewers in many equitant / parallel views and readings. Views, that more specifically arouse and infinitely hone their imagination, thus constantly enriching their psychic world.

Thanks to the unorthodox angle used by the talented creator, various connotations from art and the cinema, from Commedia del’ Arte, a sexual encounter, a -seemingly- “family moment” or a scene from an ageless daily routine, project through his works, with the dynamics of a rediscovery-recreation of the very “identity” of the “directly” perceived image, so that: the inherent context of the image, transubstantiates imperceptibly into a “different” status. A status in constant transcendence, that stimulates and humbles the viewer with unyielding intensity –both in power and potential.

The obvious expressionistic passion of previous works by Hatzioannou, with figures charismatically incarnated through clue and color, has been transformed to an underlying intensity through his seemingly calm figures, an intensity just on the brink of bursting.

Still, the determinant and catalyst here is the aspect of color-light and vice versa, playing an idiomatic, leading role in the works of this important artist, endowing each scene with awe-inspiring drama.

Color and light are the connecting link, in scenes prone to symbolism and scenes that emerge more “directly” and both are decisive factors in the suggestiveness felt by the viewer. Suggestiveness, reinforced visually by Hatzioannou’s inventive solutions in creating an image, through the charismatic use of shadows. Suggestiveness through which, in all cases, regardless of theme, radiates a singular eroticism that suffuses not only the human figures –in expression, aspect and stance- but even inanimate objects such as flowers, the ribbon in a still life, the mouthpiece and bottle of a water pipe, the curve of a sofa, the texture of a glove, the restrained rage of a bull, the shimmering of the festive decorations on a Christmas tree.

The angle through which the works of this worthy artist are perceived and experienced, invite all viewers to participate in the proceedings, to join the painted figures, to act with them as both transmitter and receiver of psychic states and stimulants; in short, to empathize with the mystery shrouding and inexhaustibly activating the material-technical part of their visual depiction.

Endowed with authentically poetic ballast, the compositions of the painter discourage any superficial approach, aiming to inhabit us to the very core and initiate us into their fertile –both visually and spiritually- psychic world. Truly, the spirit radiating and pervading the works of Stavros Hatzioannou, in harmonious collaboration with the material substance, confirms the platonic definition: In order to be authentic, art should express an Idea and not constitute a mere imitation. This is the reason why we unreservedly state that his compositions contain and express, as much as it is visually feasible, the very Idea of the metaphysical energy governing the Universe.

Dora Iliopoulou-Rogan
Dr. History of Art - Art critic
Officier des Arts et Lettres