Description/Abstract/Artist Statement
Working without paint or brushes, Stephen Antonakos (1926—2013) created murals of neon light. These sweeping gestures of buzzing color achieve a meditative and spiritual quality yet remain accessible in their communal and urban settings. Douglas Crimp's 1981 essay, “The End of Painting '' argues that the most promising art of the time mounts a thorough critique on the myths of humanism, and consequently the cherished tropes of expressive painting. Antonakos’s career spans this period of upheaval, fraught by fears over the looming death of modernist painting as well as critical and curatorial activity that interrogated art’s structures. Although Antonakos seems to participate in the assault of painting’s ideological foundations carried out by Crimp and his favored artists, such as Daniel Buren, he uses abstract form to affirm his own spiritual tradition. While his colleagues were negotiating these anxieties, Antonakos explored and delicately integrated his experience of Greek Orthodoxy into his practice, culminating in his Meditation Rooms and Chapels of the late 1980s.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Vittorio Colaizzi
Faculty Advisor/Mentor Department
Art History
College Affiliation
College of Arts & Letters
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Disciplines
American Art and Architecture | Contemporary Art | Modern Art and Architecture | Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology | Theory and Criticism
Session Title
Art History Session 2 - Structure and Analysis of Artistic Practice
Location
Learning Commons @Perry Library, Room 1306
Start Date
3-30-2024 10:45 AM
End Date
3-30-2024 11:45 AM
Upload File
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Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons
Stephen Antonakos: The Spiritual Tenets of Neon
Learning Commons @Perry Library, Room 1306
Working without paint or brushes, Stephen Antonakos (1926—2013) created murals of neon light. These sweeping gestures of buzzing color achieve a meditative and spiritual quality yet remain accessible in their communal and urban settings. Douglas Crimp's 1981 essay, “The End of Painting '' argues that the most promising art of the time mounts a thorough critique on the myths of humanism, and consequently the cherished tropes of expressive painting. Antonakos’s career spans this period of upheaval, fraught by fears over the looming death of modernist painting as well as critical and curatorial activity that interrogated art’s structures. Although Antonakos seems to participate in the assault of painting’s ideological foundations carried out by Crimp and his favored artists, such as Daniel Buren, he uses abstract form to affirm his own spiritual tradition. While his colleagues were negotiating these anxieties, Antonakos explored and delicately integrated his experience of Greek Orthodoxy into his practice, culminating in his Meditation Rooms and Chapels of the late 1980s.