Byzantine and Christian Museum new temporary exhibition “The Byzantine World of Tassos Mantzavinos”
27 September 2022
The new temporary exhibition of the Byzantine and Christian Museum entitled “The Byzantine World of Tassos Mantzavinos” will be inaugurated on Friday 14 October 2022 at 19:30. In a comprehensive presentation of more than 100 drawings, constructions, paintings and works on textile, the exhibition considers the artist¢s dialogue with Byzantine culture, art and the Christian faith.
In Tassos Sp. Mantzavinos¢s painting, pictorial elements rooted in the Byzantine tradition gradually emerged from the 1990s onwards which, during the last decades, increased dominating eventually the painter¢s art. Themes, such as the Orthodox parish church, ex-votos (tamata), amulets, the representation of Saint George slaying the dragon, portable iconostases, and also the polyphonic universe of Byzantine ornamentation, constitute a significant source of inspiration displayed thematically in the exhibition.
Tassos Mantzavinos discovers a significant part of his artistic identity in the Byzantine cultural tradition that reaches the folk-byzantine art of modern times, but also in his experiential relationship with the Orthodox doctrine, and transforms it into a personal visual language freed from elements of copying or sterile imitation. His very own artistic idiom was born out of the interaction of Byzantine tradition with the present.
The temporary exhibition staged at the Byzantine and Christian Museum displays for the first time the largest part of the artist¢s drawings and works.
Exhibition opening: Friday 14 October 2022, at 19:30
Duration: 14 October 2022 until 26 January 2023
