Rolled poster paper and oil on board in plexiglas
64,1 x 52 x 3,8 in ( x cm)

Pavlos is a Greek artist identified with the New Realism movement, known for his paper collages that explore the surface of the everyday. He was born in Filiatra in 1930, and graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Athens in 1953. The following year, he was awarded a scholarship to study drawing at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris, France. Upon his return to Greece, Pavlos worked in entertainment and theatre, before his interest in Pop Art grew. Following a three-year stay in Paris beginning in 1958, where he became acquainted with New Realism, he gave up painting and began to create collages with thin strip of paper cut up from magazines and posters. Each shred of paper used in the work resembles a coloured line, and together perfectly depict the vibrations that are stirred up between shape and colour. These densely coloured works depict the objects of everyday life: shirts on hangers, ties, curtains, socks, fruit bowls and bottles. Pavlos is less interested in the image of objects proper, as he is in “the philosophy that generates the image and makes it a symbol of society.” Removed from their natural context, simple daily objects become glossy consumer products, acquiring indomitable mesmerising qualities and speaking to the consumerist spirit of our current era.