Anyone who spends a little time in Crete cannot help but notice the extent to which the myths and culture of the ancient world are interwoven with modern reality. This is true to some extent throughout Greece, but in Crete it is particularly intense because of the presence of the Minoan culture. Arthur Evans’ discoveries at Knossos from 1900 onwards and his reconstructions of the buildings and frescoes he found there, whether accurate or not, established a vision of the Minoan culture which has persisted to this day. It was in effect a branding exercise which was wholeheartedly embraced by the local population and has made a major contribution to Crete’s popularity as a tourist destination.

Images derived from Minoan culture – the double-headed axe, the Prince of the Lilies, the bold floral designs of the Knossos murals – are everywhere, from restaurant names to souvenirs and cultural artefacts and company logos. The costumes of traditional Cretan dancers echo those of the Minoan snake goddess figurines, and every now and then one sees a face in the street in Chania which could have come straight from the wall paintings at Knossos. This interweaving of myth and reality is a gift to the creative artist, and none more so than the Chania-born artist Kostas Spanakis, whose new exhibition opened on Sunday 6^th November at the Polykentro in Voukolies. The luminous images in Spanakis’ paintings show a mix of influences – from the wall paintings of Knossos to the popular culture of the Sixties which he describes as his favourite decade.

The development of Kostas Spanakis

Kostas Spanakis was born in 1960 in Chania, where he grew up and still lives. He is self-taught as an artist, having engaged in drawing since his childhood years. His influences were always the cinema, comics, music and books. He started publishing his work in 1980, producing comic strips for small publications, and from 1985 to 2000 he worked as a graphic artist, creating company logos, posters and ads for newspapers and periodicals. At the same time he became involved in photography and had two solo exhibitions in 1999 and 2000. Since 2001 he has worked as a painter.

In an interview with Haniotika Nea, he speaks at some length about his sources of inspiration and the process which led him to create the series of paintings he calls the “Blue Ladies”, which give their name to the exhibition:

“My art describes the dream world in which I would like to live. A world where the sky is bluer, the sea calmer, and the horizon between them is open to all possibilities. A world in which woman complacently gifts her eternal beauty to the object of her desire. A world in which Sixties fashion lives again. A world in which music plays constantly. A world which cannot live without love.”

Speaking of his development as an artist he says: “My relationship with art began in my childhood years, in an era where not only was there no television or mobile phones, but even games were very few. The easiest thing for me then was to take a pencil and paper and draw my dreams.”

The exhibition at Voukolies is a new series of works which bear the imprint of his personal style. A “personal handwriting” which as he explains, is grafted onto his youthful passion for the comics, the music and the energy of the Sixties.

“After a fair number of years of work and exhibitions, I have ended up with my own personal style, which is derived from my imagery and to some extent goes in step with Pop Art,” he says.

The birth of the Blue Ladies

“It all started from the superb wall paintings at Knossos, which I fell in love with at first sight because they reflected a sense of Bronze Age joie de vivre. The ‘Blue Ladies’ enjoyed their daily lives dressed and decorated with taste, care, style and luxury in the palaces of Knossos. The sea air caressed their faces and their hair, and the sense of abundance, of wellbeing and of carefreeness was imprinted on their expressions, their smile and their clothing. Having absorbed all this positive emotional energy and driven by artistic inspiration, I wanted to do something with them,” Spanakis says. He adds that the final stimulus for the Ladies of Knossos to take form and flesh in the modern world came when he was watching a film of the life of Yves St Laurent and noted the way in which the French fashion designer expressed the Neoplasticism of Piet Mondrian in a collection of cocktail dresses, giving a different look to his Parisian clients.

“Then I remembered that the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who discovered Knossos had given the name ‘Parisian’ to the female form which he discovered in the ruins because it was decorated and painted to perfection. So suddenly everything fell into place in my head and I decided to bring the ‘Blue Ladies’ into the contemporary era to live in my own favourite time, which is the Sixties and secondly today.”

Ancient but modern

 In Spanakis’ mind the elegant young Cretans of antiquity began to be transformed into dynamic modern women. Women who “travel all over the world, who move around in Chania and Heraklion, who work as typists, air hostesses and taxi-drivers and enjoy life in Kydonia and Knossos, buying stuff in shopping centres and drinking wine at the Aquarium”.

“Or again we find them gazing out to sea, or playing music and singing to express their grief. ‘Ladies’ who live on the edge, flirting with the mythical forms of the Minoan age, such as the Prince of the Lilies and the Minotaur, but also – why not – with paper heroes such as Popeye! After all, in art everything is allowed! The ‘Blue Ladies’, then, are here today and it is certain that they are living the myth which I imagined and created for them,” Spanakis concludes.

The exhibition of Kostas Spanakis’ works entitled “Blue Ladies” is showing at the Polykentro in Voukolies from 6th to 25th November. Opening hours are 10.00 am to 1.00 pm Monday to Friday, 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm on Saturday and 11.00 am to 7.00 pm on Sunday. The Polykentro is behind the secondary school and is reached via a signed turning to the left on the main street coming from Tavronitis, shortly before the main square. Admission is free.