The well-known Greek artist speaks to BHMAgazino about his career and about the opportunities that young creators who have a vision for the future can seize—just like aspiring journalists in To Vima’s student newspapers.

BY
MARILENA ASTRAPELLOU

His work is well known and popular among the domestic art-loving public. What may not be equally well known is that he is among the few young Greek creators who have successfully presented their work abroad. In addition to significant Greek private collections, his works are also held in leading international collections, such as the Sammlung Schirm in Berlin. He himself, however, remains grounded:

“The sense of success or failure I feel about my work, and about my course in general, is determined first and foremost through the creative process itself, however introspective that may seem. This introspection, which dates back to my years at the School and which I justified as part of my artistic nature, brought me to the point of almost becoming detached from the Botsoglou studio where I was studying. Nevertheless, my work had an impact relatively early on, as in my third year at the School, Manos Stefanidis, then director of the Fryssiras Museum, saw my work and the Museum purchased some of it. About a year later, Angelos Delivorrias saw my work there, and the Benaki Museum commissioned me to paint a portrait of its founder, Antonis Benakis. Thus, fertile ground was formed even before I graduated. One exhibition led to another, as usually happens, and gradually presentations abroad followed.
Participation in major events or institutions in Greece and abroad always brings great joy. Still, when one looks calmly at the bigger picture, one realizes that recognition or acclaim are very relative terms and directly dependent on the context that defines them. We should bear this in mind, especially in an era when criteria are highly fluid, and when an artist with a long and worthy career may be considered established just as much as an indifferent one with 10,000 followers. So, in order to be consistent with my own evaluative criteria, I would say that I still have a long way to go. Commercial success and any publicity are always welcome for someone like me, who earns a living exclusively from his art, and they give me the opportunity to continue devoting myself to my work. Beyond all this, the balances inside the studio are very different from those outside. So I would say without hesitation that the greatest satisfaction, after creation itself, is when its results are recognized by fellow artists.”
He himself takes a generous stance toward young people, as evidenced by his involvement with To Vima’s student newspapers, as well as toward those who are just beginning their creative path at this time.
“To the extent that I can follow the domestic visual arts activity, I would say that it shows a pluralism across all means of expression. This is logical, one might think, since at present the largest number of artists ever is active. A comprehensive qualitative assessment would be somewhat difficult; however, the large number of artists has raised the bar, and one can see in every expressive medium results made with great energy, freshness, and dedication. I have observed these characteristics in many diploma projects over the last ten to fifteen years at the Athens School of Fine Arts. I believe that the Internet has also contributed to this positive development, as it has made us members of a broader community. At the same time, exhibition spaces—profit and non-profit alike—have increased, as have opportunities for visibility in major institutions, which increasingly trust young curators and artists. All of this, despite any imperfections, when viewed over a twenty-year span, may not be ideal, but can be judged as steps in the right direction. Also, the issue of going abroad is not as difficult as it seemed, for example, in 2004, when I took my first professional steps. Institutions have been formed at every level that can provide opportunities for presentation beyond national borders. More and more young people study at foreign institutions, take part in residencies or Erasmus programs, thus gaining opportunities for visibility and networking with foreign bodies and organizations.”
Nikos Moschos himself, born in Heraklion, Crete, had the good fortune to be initiated into the basic principles of painting early on, since his father, Takis Moschos, is a conservator of Byzantine antiquities and a painter. His admiration for artists such as Piero della Francesca, Tintoretto, or El Greco began from a very young age, one might say, while at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he studied from 1997 to 2003, stimuli multiplied and included “cinema, Tarkovsky’s poetic passages, the world of the unexpected in David Lynch, or Béla Tarr’s melancholy, as well as, from literature, Kafka, Henry Miller, Karyotakis, Sakhtouris, and others.”
Two visits—to Venice and Berlin—were also decisive, where he “encountered” the Venetian Old Masters, especially Tintoretto, and the Pergamon Altar, respectively. His contact with the tempestuous Gigantomachy came at just the right moment, as he says, to lead him to a new series of works, the first examples of which he presented in 2012 at the Xippas Gallery.
In recent years, his work has been inspired mainly by the anxieties generated by a constantly changing world and by the need to adapt to it, both physically and psychologically:
“I would say that I perceive my compositions as freeze-frames from allegorical stories, where humans are simultaneously victims and perpetrators, bound by the fluid frameworks they themselves shape. The compositions are formed simultaneously with the narrative element, since all the elements I use have a specific role in the structure of each work. Some of them, beyond their character as plastic elements, also function symbolically. For example, a human figure, a deity, or an animal drawn from mythology or cinema, bearing a specific attribute in our consciousness, may be placed within a new context, and the fixed perceptions in our minds are automatically redefined. Moreover, beyond elements that are widely established for their dual character, I am interested in bringing out new symbolisms, whose qualities will be shaped in relation to the broader context of the work.”
Given that Moschos’s work is popular in the collectors’ sphere, in the contemporary era—where art often follows the market and mass consumption—the question arises as to whether a creator adapts his work to collectors’ demands or remains faithful to his own inner course:
“Today, what is sought is surprise, shock, through constant evolution—or at least through an illusion of evolution that impresses the masses very easily. Personally, I value artists whose path evolves consistently at the pace it requires. With regard to my own trajectory, I have realized that my works are appreciated by buyers with different aesthetic criteria and motivations. This diversity may be related to the fact that I never operate in a compromising manner, even when it comes to commissions. Another indication of the priorities I set in my work is the fact that although I work steadily ten to twelve hours a day, my annual output in recent years no longer exceeds seven to eight works.”