Vlavianos, passado e presente / Vlavianos, past and present
Paris 1956 -1961
Vlavianos e Paniaras / Vlavianos and Paniaras
Os anos 60: Vlavianos / The sixties: Vlavianos
Vlavianos, escultor / Vlavianos, sculptor
Os anos 70: Depoimento / The seventies: A statement
Entrevista com Vlavianos / Interview with Vlavianos
Os anos 90 / The nineties
Os anos 80 / The eighties
Nicolas Vlavianos
O "essencialismo" de Vlavianos / The "essentialism" of Vlavianos
Atenas, Paris, São Paulo, Nova York / Athens, Paris, Sao Paulo, New York
Um projeto heraclitiano de vida e obra / An Heraclitean life and work project

V l a v i a n o s   a n d   P a n i a r a s                                                                    Efi Ferentinou
Atenas, 1961

The sculptor Nicolas Vlavianos and the painter Constantinos Paniaras belong to the new generation of Greek artists who are working in Paris. I know very little about their

former works. Therefore, I will only speak about the direct sensation their art produces on me nowadays. Both artists are almost self-taught: few classes and brief studies with the old masters. The passionate desire of an independent artistic evolution and a great curiosity to see, to know and to live what is hidden beyond reality, took them to personal and authentic discoveries. The tendency to abstraction in their work seems to have freed them from already known formulae. Each of them avoids following a pre-delineated way and seeks to translate the emotions his eye and spirit experience in touch with the outside world.

Sculpture, 1960. Ferro soldado, 55 x 26 x 10 cm.
Col. Haris Vlavianos, Atenas.

The world, for Vlavianos, is the mystical and primitive element that characterizes the live beeings. Symbols of an invisible power, his sculptures possess a general spirit and adopt an almost abstract form, to be able to overcome the limited and ephemeral. The rigid material he uses — steel, bronze or aluminum plates — becomes soft and expressive in his hands. Sometimes anthropomorphic and enigmatic groups appear from the metal, sometimes imaginary animals or indefinite beeings. However, his ontomorphic compositions never lack sculptoric qualities.
Sculpture, 1960. Latão soldado, 10 x 24 x 6 cm.
Col. particular.
 Sculpture, 1960. Latão soldado, 37 x 12 x 7 cm.
Col. Alexandre Vlavianos, São Paulo.

The external traces of his inspirational sources disappear and Vlavianos concentrates his efforts in the sculpture’ own problems: the building of volumes, a happy formal balance, harmony of composition, setting of space.

The spiritual inspiration of his compositions enriches the contents and inside rhythm of these works. This success is due to the link between the spirit of his works and the material and the techniques he employs.

Thus Vlavianos makes his metallic plates transform themselves into sculptoric forms, of vibrating emotion and they also acquire a monumental feature, in spite of their small dimensions.
[...]

Efi Ferentinou
Athens, 1961