Lot 47: VLASSIS CANIARIS (1928-2011) Le Gilet mixed media 45 X 31 x 19 cm.

VLASSIS CANIARIS (1928-2011) Le Gilet mixed media 45 X 31 x 19 cm.

Provenance Galerie Bama, Paris. Private collection, France. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Caniaris, a pivotal member of the ‘Sixties Generation’ and one of the most gifted forerunners of the ‘Arte Povera’ movement, employed the dada tradition of the ‘ready made’ to produce emblematic works that blend European avant-garde trends with Greek cultural and political experiences. These unconventional materials and ‘objet trouvés’ allowed him to formulate a highly personal and symbolically charged formal language. In Le Gilet, a work exhibited in the renown Galerie Bama in Paris, the garment comes to represent the situation and more importantly the troubled journey of the workers or migrants living abroad. By incorporating into his creations different forms, textures and displays that comprise a sophisticated vocabulary that draws attention to immigrant plight and conditions of displacement, Caniaris manages to aptly explore, illuminate and comment upon issues of cultural identity and social integration.