OPY ZOUNI “last brushstrokes”
THE MENTAL VISUAL EXERCISES OF OPY ZOUNI
“In the passing of time Opy Zouni’s work, now complete, has duly substantiated its rightful place in the international scene of geometric abstraction and op art. Yet this simple and austere work, despite appearances, does not exclusively belong to optical art or to geometric abstraction.
Zouni’s expression was simple and schematic, even in her early figurative works in the 60s when she mostly painted landscapes. She was already suggesting, as early as then, that the images she saw were codified as geometric shapes in her work. This could partly be attributed to the fact that, in spite of their differences, the two countries which greatly influenced her Egypt, her birthplace, and Greece, her homeland – based their cultural expression for long periods in ancient history, both in terms of technology and art, through architecture and the fine arts, and in terms of theory, through philosophy and thinking, on a solid and nearly geometric structure.
Apart from origin and associations, Zouni’s education and family status contributed towards affording her the opportunity to choose amongst the trends and movements of her times the one that would best express her. This highlights her conscious choice of the manner of expression she would adopt at an early stage and unfailingly serve throughout her life. As of 1972 she is clearly “enlisted” in the geometric art space. Her compositions, in addition to being austere and geometric, now become abstract. She may still be painting landscapes or architectural sites, but her works are now free of any, unnecessary in her view, anecdotal elements that might betray the identity of the subject.
She is clearly interested in composition, structure, the rendition of volume on the two-dimensional surface, the expansion of space, and chromatic values. These are primarily founded on the contrast between black and white and their relation with colours, initially in solid painted surfaces and collage. During this period form and colour are often associated in her work. Space becomes painterly through perspective and, in an inverse function, painting evolves into space. Illusion is the optical but also mental exercise that the artist usually has in store for the viewer’s eyes. This exercise, which often causes a spatial disorientation, seems like an interactive game which sometimes involves the participation of the surroundings, as is the case where mirrors are used. Another distinguishing characteristic of her work is the orderly and rhythmical segmentation of the surface, mainly with horizontal lines, sometimes in symmetrical layouts and sometimes in denser arrangements which underline the use of perspective.
In recent years the austere character of her works was “disrupted” through the introduction of chromatic elements with indefinite forms which contrast with the clarity of the geometric shapes in her works. From the 90s, Zouni’s works clearly and intentionally hover between two worlds. Their rational character does not preclude emotional involvement. Opy Zouni is a woman artist. Her works reflect her emotions as much as her thoughts. She loved the world and nature. The austere logic in her form was, for her, a natural consequence of the real, external world. She “supplemented” this form with the warmth and radiance of colour, which emanate from the artist’s inner emotional world and which relate, in an indefinite way, to some allusion to the free impressionistic chromatic feast or the expressionistic gesture to render the intensity of emotion. This dual identity invested her work with the capacity to accomplish challenging combinations in composition, both in aesthetic and in emotional terms, which enhance, rather than fail, her long research.
I am greatly honoured in being asked to participate, once again, in the presentation of a special exhibition of Opy Zouni’s work. It has been prepared with meticulous care and profound respect by her own people to be shown at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, a hearth of culture whose activities promote art and its values. The exhibition, which includes a great number of the artist’s forming them into a mental exercise and aesthetic delight.”
