4/26/13:
“The Idleness of Sisyphus” by Sandro Chia
Italy was home to a new surge of Neo-Expressionist
group of artists called the transavanguardia
that pervaded painting in the country during the 1970s. Among the “three Cs” of the movement (Clemente,
Chia, and Cucchi), Chia was the one who focused on Neo-Classicism from the 20s
and 30s fused with Italian styles and flamboyance. This painting is very
interesting for me because it takes a strong stance on society today as
compared to ancient Greek mythology. The
work depicts a bureaucrat rolling a boulder up to the top of a mountain. This parallels the ancient myth of Sisyphus,
who was bound to eternally roll a boulder up to the top of a hill, where the
boulder would consequently either break or fall down, starting the process all
over again. In this work, the role of Sisyphus
is replaced with the bureaucrat. Most of
his style is to place modern everyday subjects in mythological or overblown
narratives to poke fun and reduce them to the likeness of fairy tales. In this, he was rejecting Neo-Classicism, who
ironically were rejecting Futurism. I
guess artists just don’t like each other.
Lots of info on the artist’s work:
He has his own website:
More on Transavanguardia:
More on Neo-Classicism:
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