Pavlos Dionyssopoulos, known as Pavlos, was born in Filiatra, Messinia, in 1930. Following studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts and initial post-graduate studies in Paris on a French state scholarship, he settled in the French capital permanently in 1958. The art critic and friend, Pierre Restany, wrote: “Pavlos passed easily to the other side of art, between neorealism and pop art,” movements which flourished in the 1960s and influenced the artist’s work. Printed paper –mainly posters– cut into strips, but also metal wire were the dominant materials of his work. Chairs, jackets, coats, shirts, ties, but also still lifes, are among his characteristic compositions. Creating three-dimensional works, he seems to have perceived his work as “painting and sculpture simultaneously.”
However, in this work, a still life, Pavlos creates a collage of cardboard stuck on wood, painted in places, a two-dimensional narrative with emphasis on the fine outlines of the objects but also in abstract mood. The ordering of bottles and glasses in an environment reminiscent of a bar was among his favourite subjects which he handled in his usual way: not as two-dimensional representation but the creation of objects in three dimensions with a high degree of fidelity, always using strips of printed paper.
Pavlos was an artist devoted to his art, a tireless craftsman who received recognition throughout Europe and in Greece, with important exhibitions around the world to the end of his life. He died aged 89 and was buried in his birth town.
.
