Aretoussa, 1968

Spyros Katapodis was a sculptor concerned with the human figure, since his subjects always revolved around the human being or referred symbolically to situations related to human life. With a tendency toward abstraction, he worked with elements from cubism, constructivism and even surrealism, giving form in his compositions to whatever moved him or made him dream.

Two of the most common subjects he addressed in his sculpture, the chair and the human figure, are combined in “Aretoussa”. The stressed, compact, but concise rendering of volume of the girl’s body, who appears to be set like a doll on the chair, is in contrast to the finely-made chair, a recollection of older furniture, which takes the form of a swing as the back frames the body of the child. The composition is unquestionably emotionally charged, perhaps by the childhood or adolescent experiences of the artist, something true of quite a number of his works, thus revealing nostalgia for the innocence of childhood.