George Petrides at National Hellenic Museum

 

George Petrides, Man Between TwoWars, 2022

There are many ethnic cultural spaces in Chicago - yet only a few are serious about visual  art. ( hats off to the Ukrainians and Mexicans ! ). Now, ten years after the National Hellenic Museum built a gorgeous new facility in Greektown— perhaps it is finally going to give more space to art exhibition.

This show consists of six monumental bronze-like heads - each on its own pedestal with explanatory signage.  They tell the story of the artist’s Greek ancestors - mostly in the 20th Century:  how they fled Smyrna when it fell to the Turk and then began building new lives elsewhere. The dark, lumpy, dimly lit, monstrous busts depict it as a story of loss, pain, and endurance -  most notably, and almost heroically, in the self portrait shown at the top.

Rodin, Head of Pierre  de Wissant, 1885-6

Signage for that self portrait refers to a detail from Rodin’s Burghers of Calais - one of whose many variants is shown above. Petrides is certainly swinging for the fences in both the scope of his theme and the sculptural tradition he invokes to address it.  But does  he really hit the ball  into the grandstands?

This work is not in the heroic/natural tradition of Pheidias, Michelangelo, or Rodin. It does not amaze with a conflation of convincing mimesis and formal power.  But it does project strong feeling - much like the works of an expressionist sculptor like Giacometti - who is also mentioned in gallery signage. The pieces in this show feel far less isolated, insecure, and borderline wacky than  those of the  artworld icon of the mid-20th Century - and that’s not a bad thing.  Existential angst was trending  back then - nowadays it’s been replaced by tribal victimization.

  The 2016 exhibit of Theaster Gates at Richard Gray comes to mind, though Greek identity is far less relevant than African to today’s artworld.  Petrides work is also much more personal and nostalgic.   Both artists, however, invoke a great tradition of sculpture…. yet only to establish ethnic identity as they plead sympathy for ethnic trauma.   The greatness of the past is but a dim, fading memory.

************

Regarding materials:

New City reports that the artist used  "epoxy clay, plastic, metals and custom patinas" … while referring to his practice in general, the artist himself says that "each piece cast in bronze using the same lost-wax methods that were used by the ancient Greeks, with expressive patinas applied by hand and torch."  Gallery signage reads "mixed media including bronze and custom patinas"

Epoxy clay has no role in the bronze casting process… so I’m guessing that it was applied to a foam core and mixed with - or covered by - metallic bronze powder.  The results can resemble bronze at about a tenth of the cost.