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CHRYSSA:
CITYSCAPES AND ICONS

MIRANDA McCLINTIC

Urban calligraphy. Rhythm. Pattern. Panorama, icon and action. Drawings in pencil, chalk, ink, neon, and aluminum. You recognize words: "ice" and "burg," or you see what appear to be Chinese characters, and you are engaged in exploring a complex sculpture that has the forthright address of a sign. Not a specific sign from a specific place, but an evocation of the many signs of life in the city that invite, promise or locate.

Chryssa's cityscapes convey the overlayering of sensation and indeterminate impression that is the most striking feature of contemporary urban existence. The vitality, power and elegance in these works affectively convey the artist's feelings for her subject.

Chryssa is clearly a city girl. She came to New York from Greece by way of Europe, and this odyssey has given her work its special mix of vernacular and classical referents. Her most recent wall reliefs of aluminum and neon are descriptive of twentieth-century time and place. while at the same time being graphically symbolic of human communication as it has existed through the ages.

Chryssa began by making "Cycladic Books." Such books never existed before in history, but Chryssa added them to the cultural record of her homeland. Then she made stamped paintings (in 1958) which repeated advertisements from newspapers and magazines, echoing the way in which these messages function and reminding us how and what we communicate in late twentieth-century America.

In 1951, Chryssa discovered that the neon of American signs that give such excitement to the New York City neighborhoods surrounding her could be material for making art appropriate to her existence. Although she worked in metal in the Sixties, neon became the signature of her work from that

[[image]] 
Chryssa, Cityscape; Mall Street No. 4 1980-82. Honeycomb aluminum, metallic paint, fluorescent light. 10' Wide x 6' high x 5' Deep. Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery.    


74 June 1988