Lucas Samaras was born in 1936 in Kastoria and, at the age of twelve, emigrated to New York with his mother. His father had already moved there with the onset of World War II. He studied at the School of Arts and Sciences of Rutgers University, where he came into contact with artists such as Allan Kaprow, George Segal and Claes Oldenburg, one of the innovators of pop art, who invited him to join the so-called School of New Jersey. He continued with studies in art history at Columbia University, while his need to explore other means of expression led him to join the Stella Adler school of dramatic art in 1961. His talent was quickly recognised and his multifaceted work established him as one of the most important representatives of post-war modern art.
Early in his artistic life he experimented with painting, sculpture and engraving, but he was won over by photography which dominated a large part of his work, with an intense emphasis on Polaroid self-portraits that he reproduced and manipulated in a way which is often provocative and thought-provoking. Samaras created an entirely personal idiom, his greatest thematic field being himself, which he interprets from a “voyeuristic” point of view.
The work in our collection belongs to a series of twenty-five sculptures entitled “Chair transformations”, which represents a defining moment in his career, as he was beginning to explore ways to transform everyday utility objects into artworks. In the mid-1960s, he began to regard this specific object as a sculpture, redefining it in various forms. Chairs formed a central part of his personal vocabulary and appeared in his work in a variety of means and materials. According to Samaras, his chairs and other “transformation” series refute the possibility of a unique platonic ideal as a measure of any natural thing. Indeed, these chairs flout the reason for which they were made; most are no longer functional, since no one can sit on them. On the contrary, they function as quality substitutes of a missing body, imaginary and often humorous, claiming their presence as works of art.
Samaras’ spirit never rests: he continues to create to this day and explore his work through computer art, combining photography and virtual reality in the creation of short films with music accompaniment, so called “Photoflicks”.
His work can be found in important collections and museums in the USA and elsewhere, while the Greek National Gallery organised the retrospective exhibition Adventures of the Ego in 2005.
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