ART-PRESENTATION: George Lappas-Happy Birthday

George Lappas was one of the innovative and restless artists of the generation of the ‘80s, who contributed significantly to the rejuvenation of neo-Hellenic sculpture by proposing a pioneering viewpoint of sculptural environments, rethinking the concept of three dimensional creations in relation to their environments. The relation between the viewer, the work and the immediate environment is the key for his work.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: DESTE Foundation Archive

The exhibition “Happy Birthday” comprises a selection of George Lappas (who died this year) recent and largely unknown works, which attempts to shed light on aspects of his quests. The title comes from a series of sculptures with the inscription “Happy Birthday”. In the exhibition, major installations and sculptures from various series of Lappas’ recent production reflect the orientation and the breadth of his experimentation and paths. At the same time, on the oblong sides of the room, the small aluminium sculptures he produced systematically in the last decades of his career are arranged in a continuous frieze. Self-contained works but also notes for an unending “work-in-progress”, sculptural experiments or gestures of research, these sculptures were carefully classified, numbered and placed in boxes that lined the shelves of his studio from end to end. Some 250 of them were selected and placed in a fluid layout, with no hierarchies or groupings, so as to form a “text” whose meaning is perceived through the sequences and differentiations. It is an archive of sculptures which confront and encounter one another to articulate a narrative about the human condition, the enigmas of existence, about history, individuality and the multitude; a narrative with a strong absurd and ironic element. The linear layout of these sculptures in the showcases is based on the spatial sequence adopted by the artist himself in his studio.

Info: Benaki Museum, 1Koumbari Street, Athens, Duration: 23/9-20/11/16, Days & Hours: Wed, Fri 9:00-17:00, Thurs, Sat 9:00-24:00, Sun 9:00-15:00, www.benaki.gr