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ANNA CONSTANTINOU
b. 1947, Alexandria, Egypt. Lives in Edinburgh. Untitled: Triptych, 1977
Three same-sized canvases, covered with an almost invisible layer of off-white acrylic paint delineated with an almost continuous stripe of different hues of red at the rare bottom, are the basic elements that constitute Untitled: Triptych (1977) by Anna Constantinou. It was during the 1970s that the artist started her experimentation with the very core of painting, focused on the basic elements of surfaces, colors, material and design.
Far from figuration, she gradually removed any descriptive elements from her compositions, deeply inspired by the spirit of the late 1960s and the 1970s in Europe and the USA, and especially in Italy, where she lived and studied painting and engraving at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Rome (1965-68). Artists of that period expressed their dissatisfaction with established ideas by questioning the mainstream socio-cultural institutions and turned towards the elemental characteristics of art, and away from commercialization and the art- industry.
Constantinou resided in Italy until 1976, when she moved to Edinburgh. Untitled: Triptych was made during this transitional point for the artist who at the time explored her canvases as an independent medium. The particular triptych unfolds bare, with no frame, as a limitless exploration of surface, with no intent of further manipulation or restraint, defined only by
a continuous yet independent rhythmic line that pulsates, capturing a movement in an achronic time, suggestive of an alternative script or of concise archetypal sign.
This autonomous handwritten trace of color emphasizes the self-referential process of painting and subsequently the creation of a very significant language: the visual language. And it is through this visual language that Constantinou reveals an autonomous piece that stands as a rite of passage; a transitional piece of a ritualistic nature, the triptych format
in itself is highly associated with devotional pieces. The transitional horizontal stream that travels from canvas to canvas can be considered as the line of departure through the plane that acts as an open transcript suggestive of all potentialities.
Artist Website: www.annaconstantinou.co.uk
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