The Athens gallery MaLou Art Consulting invites you to get acquainted with works of contemporary Greek artists.

The ancient Greeks were attached to the idea of absolute divine beauty, and they strove to incarnate it brilliantly in their immortal art reached us through the ages. The brilliant artists of the Ancient Greece and of the Renaissance considered Beauty to be one of the most powerful forces elevating the human spirit.

Let’s recall the story of ancient Greek mythology about the judgment of Paris. The goddess of enmity and discord Eris, offended by the fact that she was not invited to the wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis, decided to take revenge on the gods and planted at feast a golden apple with the inscription “For the Most Beautiful”. Immediately among the three goddesses (Zeus’s wife, the Hero, the warrior of Athena and the goddess of love, Aphrodite), a dispute arose at the feast: who is the most beautiful? Zeus gave the apple to Hermes and ordered to divert the goddesses to Paris, the beautiful son of Trojan king, who should choose the most beautiful of the three ones, and each of them began to persuade Paris to give the apple to her, promising the young man great rewards. Hera promised Paris power over all of Asia, Athena – military victories and glory, but Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite, who promised to reward him with the love of the most beautiful woman―Elena the Beautiful, and in the end it led to the Trojan War: neither glory, nor power, nor honors could withstand Beauty.

The image of Aphrodite is the ideal of a naked female body immortalized in white marble in the sculpture of the Melian Aphrodite by the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles. According to theories of modern scientists, these sculptures were to be painted with colors. The ancient Greeks attached great importance not only to form, but also to color. In general, the ancient art of the Greeks is cheerful, jubilant, life-affirming and colorful. Depending on the method of production of the dye, the color of the dress (and not only the material) could attest to the social status in the ancient world.

A white-pure minimalist concept of ancient Greek and Roman art was formed in the 18th century by a German scientist Johann Winckelmann. His book «The History of Art in Antiquity» established the idea of pure, monochrome characteristics of Greek and Roman artworks, and this view prevailed for centuries in the scientific world. In the 1980s, German scientists Vincent Brinkman and Ulrike Koch-Brinkman began to study the colors of ancient Greek sculptures. Using various scientific methods, they managed to prove that the ancient statues decorating the buildings were anything that’s not a pure white artistic presentation! Ancient sculptors were interested in both color and form. They did not create only white marble statues, which we used to see in museums, but on the contrary created bright, colorful images, close to their real life. Unfortunately, changes in the environment, meteorological conditions―rains, winds and sun have done their work for many millennia and have erased the brightness of the paints on the ancient marble. It would be a mistake to consider that the painted ancient Greek sculptures were an exceptional phenomenon. They were part of a common environment, as bright as people themselves. Public buildings were also painted. The walls were decorated with frescoes. Deep saturated colors were used. We often hear about the famous Greek theory of the four primary colors, which was based on philosophical thinking. Ancient Greek theory of colors glorified four colors: red, yellow, black and white. Mixing these four elements, they enriched their color palette.

Color is a powerful force in the hands of an artist. In all likelihood, contemporary Greek artists have a color feeling close to the one of the ancient Greek artists, and their use of the color palette is very similar to the methods of the ancient ones.

More information about artists, paintings and prices is available on the web site www.malouartconsulting.com  or at: malouart.collections@gmail.com
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phone: +306956 203620 (viber)

MaLou Art Consulting & Gallery, a unique gallery in the heart of Athens, set ambitious goals, the most ambitious of which is to connect the world’s art points. Its specialties are works of artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the ones of old masters. Being a place of attraction for professionals and the creative class, the gallery has gone beyond the traditional understanding of the art gallery and provides ample opportunities for collectors, and art lovers. One of the most interesting and promising areas of activity is the promotion of young artists. Its successfully implemented special educational programs allow talking about the educational humanitarian mission of the gallery, which philosophy is based on the idea that art is the most common and influential means of communication, giving impetus to creativity, and its spiritual comprehension.

September 2018