From the drawings and paintings of Paul Laspagis, one thing is obvious – the perpetual inspiration and motifs of his work, landscapes and human figures, that arise from his interest in the presence of the visual world. And the visual world is comprised of light, form and space that Paul Laspagis transforms, through his own artist’s language, to his drawings and paintings. The infinity of space is encountered in his landscapes, as well as the intimacy of form in his figures.
The solo exhibition of the Greek Australian artist, titled Human Presence, will open next Wednesday, at the Cato gallery, run by the Victorian Artists Society. It will feature a combination of pastel drawings and paintings.
“Pastel drawings are drawings I did directly from the model at Victorian Artists Society. The paintings have evolved from the drawings, and thus they tend to be more conceptualised and structured. The drawings are more responsive, being a direct interpretation of the presence of the figure,” Paul Laspagis told Neos Kosmos.
Limnos-born Laspagis tends to work in a couple of genres – with drawing being the most important, the initial responsive contact with the subject regardless of landscape or figure.
When focussing on the figure, he is interested in the human presence and human form that houses the spirit.
“I see that human form as a place within which lays the spirit. When I’m drawing a figure, I’m aware of the interior life of the person; it activates and radiates the space around it. In the paintings I tried to evolve that idea, more so than on the drawings. While the drawings tend to be sensual physical presence, in the paintings I’m more removed, and I’m able to conceptualise more that idea of the interior life of the human form activating and dissolving into space,” Laspagis says.
He has been interested in the figure not in an anatomical sense, but the figure as a part of space, an element, rather than as a mass that occupies space. The anatomy becoming part of the space that it habituates, he says.
“The perspective that I take when I’m looking at the landscape is the same perspective I take when I’m looking at the figure. It’s just that I’m looking at the interior space here, on the intimate level, so it’s a more shallow space and it has the element of a human presence, which gives another dimension. I’m interested in human form as a vessel for the spirit,” he emphasises.
For the Greek Australian artist, next week’s solo exhibition will be one of over twenty exhibitions he has regularly presented in the past 40 years.
Commercial galleries versus artist’s integrity
Instead of choosing to showcase his work in commercial galleries that often tend to attract more audience, Laspagis will exhibit in one of the four galleries of the Victorian Artists Society in East Melbourne.
While painting and drawing consistently over the years, he developed his own perspective, something that commercial galleries are very conservative about.
Realising that there is no room for diversity in his vision, he decided to follow his own path.
“With your artwork, you need to fall within the spectrum that commercial galleries’ clientele is interested in, as clientele supports them. That’s why I decided to follow my own vision,” Laspagis says.
Apathy from the community
During almost half of the century that Paul Laspagis has been exhibiting as an artist, he states with disappointment that the number of Greek community members who have attended his exhibitions, the majority of them in Melbourne, can be counted on one hand.
The response and support that visual arts get from the Greek community is disappointing. The interest, Laspagis says, is not expected from the first generation as much as it is from the second and third, those that are more likely to be educated.
“The visual arts don’t get any support from the Greek community,” he begins.
“The second and third generation should be taking interest in visual arts. The arts represent the humanities and they are the vehicle through which the spirit speaks; the arts are that vehicle. Otherwise, you just have barbaric materialism, that is so pervasive in this society. And for young educated people, and young Greek people as well, in my opinion, it’s a disgrace that they have totally embraced this sort of materialistic values,” Laspagis concludes.
Paul Laspagis’ exhibition Human Presence is on from Wednesday 13 March, to Tuesday 19 March, at the Cato gallery, Victorian Artists Society, 430 Albert St, East Melbourne. For more information, contact 9662 1484.