Article 1

THE EMPEROR OF COLORS, Panagiotis Kampanis 18/10/2020

https://cityculture.gr/o-autokratoras-twn-xromaton-kaiserlis-kampanis/?fbclid=IwAR0qrFNnznEgQeAiih7Stdd1T6ZcMkfyrTloZvraEdV4U66KSzI_VZXjglQ

Abstract expressionism, which Kaiserlis decided to join, is an artistic current in post-war New Yorkbased painting. It was perhaps the first major art movement to be born in America, while declaring its independence from the rest of Europe in modern art. The term abstract expressionism was first used in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates. This name contains the main technical and aesthetic characteristics of the movement, as it largely combined German expressionism with the purely abstract tendencies of other modern movements such as futurism or cubism. It is considered by many that surrealism is its main predecessor, due to its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious expression. Perhaps the greatest representative of abstract expressionism, Pollock, developed a very special technique in painting (dripping method), in which he dripped chaotically on the canvas, which he placed on the ground. His creations, which have a fractal structure, are considered almost impossible to reproduce by imitators, as they reflect the particular internal structure of the artist.

During the 1960s, the abstract expressionist movement began to lose much of its radiance and ceased to significantly influence other artists. In our time, the phenomenon of redefinition is intense, not only of art, but also of human thought as a whole, it is considered a wishful work that some artists are inspired by these “modern movements”, which have significantly influenced the evolution of societies. The chaotic result of the dripping technique can initially create a negative impression to someone, even discomfort and uncertainty in what they see. But observing it, not in a critical mood, anyone discovers a structured work, in which colors and shapes are balanced, in a way that stimulates the mind and emotion. It is the creative expression, which in the work captures the mental state, emotions, ideas, feeling and vision of the artist. If we let ourselves feel free, then we will feel that inside it is hidden a heart that is constantly beating. Like the modern world we live in. Looking at it, the sense of creation is created. “When you look down, the world looks like a painting”, sings the well-known bard Costas Hatzis. Almost everyone considers Pollock and his “artistic descendants” to be abstract artists. Personally, I classify them as documents. When there were no drones for aerial photography, the soul of the artist soared into the sky and gazed. When he returned, he recorded on the canvas in his own way what his soul saw.

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Article 2

The pictorial eclecticism of Ioannis Kaiserlis under the sign of Abstract Expressionism (IE), Marta Lock 16/10/2020

http://The pictorial eclecticism of Ioannis Kaiserlis under the sign of Abstract Expressionism (IE)

The choice to freely express sensations and emotions without having to stick to the scheme of figuration represents for many artists the maximum form of freedom, necessary to communicate everything that cannot be explained, which often does not have a full meaning but only needs to escape in order to extricate itself and emerge to the consciousness. The artist I am going to tell you about today is moving on the ground of emotional non-figuration in order to satisfy his feeling.
When in the first half of the twentieth century arose the need to affirm the independence of art from any form of representation of reality, claiming that the act of creating was already itself the purest artistic manifestation and the only one capable of moving away from contingent reality, sometimes too disorienting and sometimes too rapid in its evolution, feelings and emotions were put in the background. Abstract Art, from Geometrical to Spatialism, from Suprematism to Minimalism, omitted subjectivity to exalt objectivity, the rational study of lines and colours on the canvas to seek a purely aesthetic, mental and meditated balance, an almost scientific approach to the work that necessarily had to distance itself from all that was observable in reality. The paradox to which on came wanted to be overcome in Europe by Vassily Kandinsky who wanted to reaffirm the importance and natural tendency of the artist to infuse and communicate emotions giving life to Lyrical Abstractionism, while in the United States developed a much more extreme movement, in his return to pure inner sensation, which took the name of Abstract Expressionism. Jackson Pollock, its founder, promoted an immediate, instinctive painting, without anything being held back by the reins of rationality, in which all that was subjective, an expression of the interiority of the performer of the work, had to escape and impress on the canvas in a free, irrational, impulsive way. Action Painting was as functional to this philosophy so much as Dripping, Color Field, all techniques used by artists who joined the current, each with his own personal pictorial approach. From the sign painting of Franz Kline and Adolph Gottlieb to the irrational and impetuous works of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, from the meditative atmospheres of Mark Rothko to the intimist monochromes of Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Expressionism gave artists the freedom to be and express themselves in the manner closest to their own inclination.

The Greek artist Ioannis Kaiserlis, aka KaiZer, approaches the American movement with a very singular manner, moving like a tightrope walker between the stylistic variations that have characterized it, thus creating an eclecticism that becomes his personal distinguishing mark; the ability to explore the different expressive languages corresponds to his desire to tune the artworks with the modes of expression, the sensations of the moment when he starts painting.

His sense of freedom is also manifested through the choice not to give titles to the artworks, entrusting their names to numbers because everything he wishes to tell and express must reach the most intimate chords of the observer without being influenced by the link with rationality, by the guidance of a title that could distract him from the immediate and instinctive approach to the observed canvas.

For KaiZer, Action Painting is the most appropriate choice when he wants to narrate the strongest, most intense, often confused sensations, precisely because he is impetuous in their manifestation, those that induce him to look inside himself in order to be able to free everything that would otherwise be entangled in the deepest folds.

When, on the other hand, he finds himself in a calmer, meditative state of mind, the one during which he needs to reflect, rationalise and give a name and meaning to what he feels and perceives, he approaches the signs, the grey scale, the need for a balance between canvas and emotion, between outside and inside which becomes a narration to the viewer of the artwork.

And then suddenly he moves towards a more lyrical style, almost tending towards figuration, introducing round shapes or elements recognizable by the human eye, to express lighter, more vital and amused sensations, because he feels the need to come out into the light and tell relaxing and sparkling moments, perhaps those immediately following the most collected phases, and therefore the shapes become softer, the colours more lively.

Sometimes he chooses primary colours, while other times he widens the chromatic range in order to reach the final aim, that of the explosiveness of enthusiasm, which however appears to be very different from the more impetuous and impetuous series of artworks where restrained emotions need to explode and be outsourced in any form. Finally, in the most contemplative moments, he moves towards Material Art, for which he chooses the monochrome necessary to let the object hidden in the canvas speak, which it lets himself be glimpsed to symbolize Kaiserlis‘ need to cling to a reference, to something that slows down the rhythm, that creates a friction in the fluid and fast everyday reality and that constitutes a solid base from which to examine the silent reality of the non-visible.

His emotions alternate, as much as they do in life, and therefore he cannot but tune those passages to his artistic manifestation, letting himself be guided by instinct and by the freedom to decide each time with which language to express himself, to tell his story and to communicate with the observer who lets himself be conquered by his works in an instinctive, atavistic way. Ioannis Kaiserlis arrives at art concurrently to a different yet analogous professional path, in which he has measured himself with flat design and interior decoration, fields that have led him to feel the need to express through the creative act and to discover how art is able to modify an environment through its communicative capacity and strong emotional impact.

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Article 3

Ioannis Kaiserlis, the Informal Material to describe the impetuousness of nature, Marta Lock 02/12/2020

https://www.ilmondochece.com/single-post/le-interviste-di-marta-lock-ioannis-kaiserlis-l-informale-materico-e-la-natura?fbclid=IwAR3RrJkh9u0yPTN4r6RkIxf3A0sPZcszFisFjRkWcTvjvjBNOYfYbvoDNQA

The Greek interior designer Ioannis Kaiserlis, discovers an unexpected creative vein that pushes him to give life to real works of art, strong of the experience in the field of furniture and aware that an environment is enriched and illuminated thanks to the presence of a canvas able to excite, to make the intimate strings of the observer vibrate. He chooses, precisely because of this expressive awareness, as well as the need not to let himself be caged by the academic and predetermined rules of figuration that he would perceive as a limit to the inner flow that he wants to escape, a pictorial approach linked to Abstraction, declined from time to time on the basis of the subject he wants to represent, the concept he needs to free and the feeling that presses to be expressed in a more or less incisive way. He approaches Abstract Expressionism when the pictorial gesture is more instinctive, almost primordial and irrepressible in its communicative urgency, and then moves on to the Informal Material in the moments in which his inspiration dwells on contemplation, on natural events that cannot help but strike him but also induce him to reflect on the smallness of the human being before the greatness of the world that hosts him, the atmospheric phenomena that often overwhelm him, thus revealing a feeling very close to the themes of English Romanticism, those of that William Turner who made the relationship between man and the impetuousness of nature the fulcrum of his artistic production.

Therefore, romantic poetic poetic romantic but contemporary pictorial style, that of Ioannis Kaiserlis, especially in his work The Wave of Venetian Life, a great triptych that wants to be a testimony of the great flood of the seaside town after which people, but also nature, have rebuilt, regenerated and recreated what has been mercilessly destroyed by nature. The artistic language is therefore structured, consistent, because it is functional to combine the artist’s thought, his philosophical concept, with the evident impetuousness of the event and therefore it was necessary to use an Informal Material approach in which the superimposition of oil with 3D images merges with the materials used to give relief, thickness and plasticity to the scene described, the one in which the sea entered the city and destroyed what it found on its overwhelming path. In the surreal landscape that is revealed a moment after the flood, Ioannis Kaiserlis lets us glimpse the testimony and disorienting co-presence of interrupted life, the gondolas and people completely swept away by the destructive wave, and that of the animals of the sea, such as fish and dolphins, who suddenly find themselves in an unknown environment, destabilising and frightening because they do not belong to their habitat.

The final result is an indefinite tangle, a place devastated and to be rebuilt because, after all, all that man can do, when he comes across the impetuous force of nature, is to get up and start again from the point where everything had stopped, more conscious of his slenderness but aware of that inner force that allows him to regenerate as much as nature itself is able to do when man corrupts his balance, his vital circle, through technological and industrial intervention.

But let’s get to know better the artist who has chosen to make an Italian city, Venice, the protagonist of one of his most important works.

Ioannis, can you explain what it meant to you to make this painting?

I started to create the artwork abstractly. As I was painting the second of the three paintings, a person close to me noticed the gondola I had designed. Then with the suggestion of an another friend I realized that the gondola was a sign to capture the destruction of Venice. It took six months to complete the triptych, after several changes, work and passion for development. I felt the need on the one hand to highlight the daily deterioration of nature and its reaction to the disturbing action of man’s actions towards universal equilibrium and on the other hand, the constant search presence of the Divine Providence, which in any case intervenes to save man and in the specific case Venice.

Is there an ecological message in the artwork or yours it’s simply an acknowledgement of what happened, as if it were a historical testimony of an event that took place?

Yes actually, there is an ecological message. The artwork is a tangible example of natural disaster as a result of human negligence and presents the flood of Venice. The security of the house and the protection it offers becomes questionable when nature decides to rebe the and respond with hostility to the forcing that man exerts on her. Human activity is a process that causes gradually irreparable damage to the natural environment. The urban landscape often violates the rules of nature, wastes its resources and inadvertently creates concrete places for the falsification of man himself, and not sites for the development of the spirit. Man does not respect that ancient and personified figure of Mother Nature that from the beginning of his path and his evolution in any geocultural environment he began to venerate. So this work is in a certain sense a tribute to her.

Explain to us why you chosed to mix three different techniques, even if they are definitely complementary; is it a pictorial enrichment or is it a need of yours not to stop at a single style because its expressiveness needs more space?

I decided to use three different techniques to be able to highlight the greatness of the artwork, to capture every detail, to show the ability to make three-dimensional touches and elements and the technique of scratching the board in order to capture the debris. I wanted the observer to perceive the intensity of the work by the three different techniques. and at the same time that my deep conviction emerged that it is precisely in chaos that new ideas, new points of view, new opportunities are generated, it is from the darkness that we begin to see light, movement, life again.

Which are your projectsr for the future? Are you planning important exhibitions or publications?

In the near future I plan to make an online exhibition, so that the public knows a part of my work through the descriptions I will give for my paintings. Later, when conditions allow, I want to present all my works. Of course I will continue to paint, to attribute my world and my soul to the canvas and to develop my art and to evolve my experiments and my contemporary sculptural art. Specifically, I want to exhibit “The wave of the Venetian Life” in Venice, which inspired me. My faith has led me to love and passion for painting!

Article 4

G. Orfanidis [PhDC, Archaeologist – Art Historian, Curator & Director (UnEdu 02/Hellenic Ministry of Culture Archaeologists – Art Historians)] writes about Kaizer. 16/12/2020

The ecological consciousness of the artist is occupied by various extensions, with the primary one being the religious one. Kaiserlis, on the one hand, is sad and mourns for the daily deterioration of nature, and on the other hand, he is subconsciously constantly seeking the meanings of “Divine Providence”, or in other words, that plan of the Creator who (will) direct all earthly activities, so that the universal balance is not disturbed forever. After all, the religious ideal follows the inspiration of the artist, sometimes openly, and sometimes secretly, covertly, to a point that is only implied if the viewers-readers themselves have similar experiences and cultural perceptions. For example, the signifier and signified of the Bible inside the gondola – sign of salvation of the civilization of the Universe – dynamically highlights the mature religious thought of Kaiserlis. The same is found in the signifier and signified of the Cross, regardless of the form it may take each time (Greek, Latin, etc). The Cross, a symbol of Divine Passion, characterizes Christian art from its beginnings, as confirmed by archaeological excavations in the Catacombs of the Italian peninsula. Human activity is considered by the artist as a process that causes gradually irreparable damage to the natural environment. The urban landscape often violates the rules of nature, wastes its resources, and ultimately, inadvertently creates concrete places of falsification of man himself, and not places of development of the spirit. Man does not respect that ancient and personified figure of Mother Nature, whom from the beginning of his course and evolution in any geocultural environment he began to worship, paying maximum tribute to Ηer. This personification is not accidental. On the contrary, it emerges from the bosom of the artist’s psychosynthesis, and in a sense is connected with the memories of him from his place of origin, a place rich in cultural monuments of Antiquity and Byzantium. Therefore, the ancient inscription from Lefkopetra of Imathia, with a direct reference to Nature-Gaia-Mother of the Gods, is engraved in the innermost world of Kaiserlis as a proof of respect for the natural environment, even in the light of another cultural reality, different from the Christian.

Kaiserlis creates from nothing. He deeply believes in the birth of ideas from the ruins, from the gloomy, from where apparently there is no light, movement, life.

Article 5
Ιωάννης Καϊσερλής: Από τον Αφηρημένο Εξπρεσιονισμό στη «Λειτουργική» Τέχνη, Γιώργος Ορφανίδης – Ioannis Kaiserlis: From Abstract Expressionism to “Functional” Art, George Orphanides (Greek language) 16/12/2020

Αρχική δημοσίευση στο Athens Art

Όμως, το παιχνίδι των επιρροών και συνειρμών του δε σταματάει στο καθ’ ημάς παρελθόν. Εκφεύγει ορίων και στεγανών. Μετουσιώνεται σε δίαυλο επικοινωνίας μεταξύ Παράδοσης και Μοντέρνου, όπως συνέβη στον ελληνικό ζωγραφικό, γλυπτικό και λοιπό καλλιτεχνικό χώρο, μεταπολεμικά, μέσα από ένα σύνολο διαφορετικών τάσεων και κινημάτων [1]. Ο καλλιτέχνης σχεδόν μυείται στις αρχές εκείνου του Γερμανικού Εξπρεσιονισμού, που αδιαμφισβήτητα, τουλάχιστον στην πρώιμη περίοδο του, στερείται σταθερού προσανατολισμού, λόγω μιας σειράς γεωπολιτισμικών, κοινωνικών και πολιτικών γεγονότων. Ίσως, αυτή η καλλιτεχνική αστάθεια, που εντοπίζεται στη Γερμανία ήδη από προηγούμενες εποχές, και πιο συγκεκριμένα από τον 16ο αιώνα [2], υιοθετημένη ακούσια από τον καλλιτέχνη, να τέμνεται με την προϋπάρχουσα ψυχοσύνθεση του καλλιτέχνη, η οποία χαρακτηρίζεται από το σαιξπηρικό δίπολο ζωή-θάνατος ή φθορά-αφθαρσία [3].

Το ατελιέ του Ιωάννη Καϊσερλή στην Αθήνα

Και από αυτή την «κλασική», ίσως πιο γνωστή στους κύκλους των Ιστορικών Τέχνης εκδοχή, ο Καϊσερλής, όντας εκ φύσεως ανήσυχος και επαναστατικός, σταδιακά με ακροβατισμούς αριστοτεχνικού χαρακτήρα υπερπηδάει τους σπειροειδείς ελιγμούς του πολιτισμικού ρου, και ξαναγράφει το λήμμα «Εξπρεσιονισμός» στο νοητό Τόμο της Νεοελληνικής Τέχνης προσθέτοντας τον επιθετικό προσδιορισμό «Αφηρημένος». Αναμενόμενο. Ο Καϊσερλής, σαν άλλος Γκιούλιβερ, κάποτε βρέθηκε στην Αμερική, τη Γη της Επαγγελίας για κάθε πρωτοπόρο και φιλόδοξο καλλιτέχνη από το δεύτερο ήμισυ του 20ου αιώνα. Συναντήθηκε πνευματικά με έναν εκ των σπουδαιότερων εκφραστών του Αφηρημένου Εξπρεσιονισμού, τον Τζάκσον Πόλοκ (1912-1956), και εκ τότε μαγεύτηκε από την εντυπωσιακή τεχνική του dripping. Ειδικότερα, ο Πόλοκ τοποθετούσε τον καμβά στο έδαφος στάζοντας προς πάσα κατεύθυνση τα χρωματικά υλικά του, δημιουργώντας εν τέλει σχέδια-φράκταλ, ή με άλλο λόγια, γεωμετρικά σχήματα που επαναλαμβάνονται αυτούσια σε μη προσπελάσιμο βαθμό μεγέθυνσης [4]. Την ίδια διαδικασία, ανανεωμένη και αναπροσαρμοσμένη βέβαια στο δικό του πολιτισμικό λεξιλόγιο, ακολουθεί και ο Καϊσερλής, αναπαράγοντας μια ευφάνταστη καλλιτεχνική πρακτική, η οποία δεν παρατηρείται συστηματικά στο πλαίσιο εξέλιξης της Νεοελληνικής Τέχνης.

Χωρίς τίτλο, ακρυλικά, 2020

Χωρίς τίτλο, ακρυλικά, 2020

Συν τω χρόνων, ο Έλληνας καλλιτέχνης διακατέχεται από ευαισθησίες που φέρουν εξορισμού ποικίλες προεκτάσεις, με πρωταρχική, τη θρησκευτική, ή όπως θα μπορούσαμε να ονομάσουμε χρησιμοποιώντας έναν άλλο όρο τη «λειτουργική», καθώς πλήθος εννοιών και συμβόλων της καλλιτεχνικής παραγωγής του ακολουθεί παγιωμένα εκκλησιαστικά-υμνολογικά πρότυπα, με ρίζες ήδη από τους πρώιμους χριστιανικούς χρόνους [5]. Όλα, όμως, δοσμένα με έναν τρόπο εξπρεσιονιστικό, που δεν περιορίζει τη δημιουργική σκέψη του καλλιτέχνη σε ένα παραδοτέο σύστημα ιδεών, αντιλήψεων και αξιών του παλαιότερου γραπτού, προφορικού και υλικού πολιτισμού της ελληνικής-μεσαιωνικής ακτινοβολίας.

Forgiveness (Συγχώρεση), ακρυλικά με ανάγλυφα τμήματα, 2020

Η σύνδεση του καλλιτέχνη με τον άγνωστο και νοηματικά απέραντο κόσμο του Θείου ανανεώνεται μέσα από την οικολογική συνείδηση του ίδιου, γεγονός που ανατροφοδοτεί υπό ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον πρίσμα το δημιουργείν του. Ο Καϊσερλής, αφενός, θλίβεται και πενθεί για την καθημερινή φθορά της φύσης, και αφετέρου υποσυνείδητα αναζητάει συνεχώς την έννοια της «Θείας Πρόνοιας», ή με άλλα λόγια, εκείνο το σχέδιο του Δημιουργού που (θα) διευθετεί τις όλες τις επίγειες δραστηριότητες, ώστε να μην διαταράσσεται αενάως η καθολική ισορροπία. Άλλωστε, το θρησκευτικό ιδεώδες ακολουθεί την έμπνευση του καλλιτέχνη, άλλοτε φανερά, και άλλοτε κρυφά, κεκαλυμμένα, σε σημείο που να υπονοείται μόνο εάν οι ίδιοι οι θεατές-αναγνώστες έχουν παρόμοιες εμπειρίες και προσλήψεις. Επί παραδείγματι, το σημαίνον και το σημαινόμενον της Βίβλου μέσα στη γόνδολα – σημάδι διάσωσης και διάδοσης του πολιτισμού της Οικουμένης στην προκειμένη περίπτωση – αναδεικνύει δυναμικά την ώριμη θρησκευτική σκέψη του Καϊσερλή. Το ίδιο εντοπίζεται στο σημαίνον και σημαινόμενον του Σταυρού, ανεξαρτήτως της μορφής που τυχόν ο ίδιος λαμβάνει κάθε φορά (λ.χ. ελληνικός, λατινικός). Ο Σταυρός, σύμβολο του Θείου Πάθους, χαρακτηρίζει τη χριστιανική τέχνη από τις απαρχές της, όπως επιβεβαιώνεται από τις αρχαιολογικές ανασκαφές στις Κατακόμβες της ιταλικής χερσονήσου [6].

Venice (Βενετία), τμήμα τριπτύχου, ελαιογραφία, 2020

Από τα σύμβολα με θρησκευτικό ενδιαφέρον, ο καλλιτέχνης φαίνεται ότι ξεχωρίζει λεγόμενο «Δέντρο της Ζωής», εκείνο το σημειωτικό κάτοπτρο του Παραδείσου. Από την Ιστορία της Τέχνης, φαίνεται ότι συνήθως απεικονίζεται αειθαλές με παραδείσια πτηνά (π.χ. παγώνια, περιστέρια) να στέκονται ή να πετούν μεταξύ των κλαδιών του. Παραπέμπει στο θεϊκό δώρο της αιώνιας ζωής, της αθανασίας, σε έννοιες που ο Καϊσερλής υμνεί μέσα από την προσωπική του τέχνη, κάθε φορά με διαφορετικό τρόπο, άλλοτε με το χρώμα, άλλοτε με τα σχέδια. Άλλωστε, για τον ίδιο το Δέντρο της Ζωής δεν είναι πάντοτε πλούσιο σε φύλλα, και γενικά, δεν χαρακτηρίζεται υποχρεωτικά από ενδείξεις ύπαρξης ανθρώπου ή ζώου. Μια πανδαισία ζωηρών χρωμάτων θεωρείται αρκετή, εφόσον δημιουργεί ένα συναίσθημα ψυχικής ευφορίας, μια εικόνα που οδηγεί το σκέπτεσθαι στο βαθύτερο νόημα του «αιωνίως». Το Δέντρο της Ζωής είναι ένα ιερό σύμβολο για πολλούς πολιτισμούς, όχι μόνο για τους Εβραίους ή τους Χριστιανούς [7]. Για του λόγου το αληθές, σε αντίθεση με τη Βίβλο, το Κοράνι αναφέρει μόνο ένα Δέντρο στον Κήπο της Εδέμ (Το Δέντρο της Αθανασίας) (2:35) [8]. Γίνεται, λοιπόν, αντιληπτή μια διαπολιτισμική διάσταση στα έργα του Καϊσερλή, ακόμα μια ανθρωποκεντρική ευαισθησία του.

Το Δέντρο της Ζωής, ακρυλικά, 2020

Η ανθρώπινη δραστηριότητα θεωρείται από τον καλλιτέχνη ως μια διαδικασία που προκαλεί σταδιακά ανεπανόρθωτη φθορά στο φυσικό περιβάλλον… Το αστικό τοπίο πολλές φορές παραβιάζει τους κανόνες της φύσης, σπαταλάει τους πόρους της, και εν τέλει, δημιουργεί ακούσια τσιμεντένιους χώρους φαλκίδευσης του ίδιου του ανθρώπου, και όχι χώρους ανάπτυξης του πνεύματος.

Nature and Concrete (Φύση και Μπετόν), ακρυλικά με ελαιογραφία, και ανάγλυφα τμήματα, 2020

Ο άνθρωπος δε σέβεται εκείνη την πανάρχαια και προσωποποιημένη μορφή της Μητέρας Φύσης, την οποία από την αρχή της πορείας και εξέλιξής του στο όποιο πολιτισμικό περιβάλλον άρχισε να λατρεύει αποδίδοντας μέγιστο φόρο τιμής στην ίδια. Αυτή η προσωποποίηση δεν είναι τυχαία. Εν αντιθέσει, εκφύεται από την ενδόμυχη σκέψη του καλλιτέχνη, και κατά μία έννοια, φαίνεται ότι συνδέεται, σε μια δεύτερη ανάγνωση, με τις μνήμες του ίδιου από τον τόπο καταγωγής του, έναν τόπο πλούσιο σε πολιτισμικά μνημεία της Αρχαιότητας και του Βυζαντίου, όπως ήδη λέχθηκε. Ως εκ τούτου, η αρχαία επιγραφή από τη Λευκόπετρα της Ημαθίας, με άμεση αναφορά στη Μητέρα των Θεών (Φύση-Γαία-Αὐτόχθων) [9], εγγράφεται στον ενδόμυχο κόσμο του Καϊσερλή ως απόδειξη σεβασμού προς το φυσικό περιβάλλον, έστω και υπό το πρίσμα μιας άλλης πολιτισμικής πραγματικότητας, διαφορετικής από τη χριστιανική.

Wounded Nature, (Πληγωμένη Φύση), ακρυλικά, με ανάγλυφα τμήματα, 2020

Ο Καϊσερλής δημιουργεί από το «τίποτα». Πιστεύει βαθύτατα στη γέννηση των ιδεών από τα χαλάσματα, από το ζοφερό, από εκεί που φαινομενικά δεν υπάρχει φως, κίνηση, ζωή. Και θα συνεχίσει να δημιουργεί με την ίδια βακχική ορμή, το ίδιο ερωτικό πάθος, την ιδία εφηβική τόλμη προς άρνηση παντός κινδύνου, εν προκειμένω του κινδύνου που καταπνίγει την ελευθερία της καλλιτεχνικής έκφρασης.

Επιλεγμένα έργα του καλλιτέχνη έχουν παρουσιαστεί στην ομαδική διαδικτυακή έκθεση «New Era», 10th January – 31st January, Art Number 23 Gallery, London, UK. Τη συγγραφή των συνοδευτικών κειμένων επιμελείται σε συνεργασία με την Γκαλερί ο Γεώργιος Ορφανίδης.

Επίσης, έργα του καλλιτέχνη θα εκτεθούν στο Athens Art Festival, το οποίο διοργανώνεται υπό την εποπτεία του ψηφιακού περιοδικού Athens Art  εντός του 2021, στην Τεχνόπολη του Δήμου Αθηναίων. Τέλος, μεταξύ άλλων κατά το επόμενο διάστημα θα ακολουθήσουν σχετικές επιστημονικές δημοσιεύσεις σε έγκριτα ακαδημαϊκά περιοδικά (journals) και αυτοτελείς εκδόσεις ιδίου χαρακτήρα από εκδοτικούς οίκους της Ελλάδας και της αλλοδαπής.

Περισσότερα για τον Ιωάννη Καϊσερλή και τις προσεχείς εικαστικές εκθέσεις του δημιουργού μπορείτε να βρείτε στους παρακάτω συνδέσμους, το προβαλλόμενο υλικό των οποίων ανανεώνεται συνεχώς: Website, Facebook, Facebook_Page, Instagram.

Article 6

Ioannis Kaiserlis, the aesthetics of abstract form to reveal the emotional world, Marta Lock 11/08/2021

Ioannis Kaiserlis, l’estetica della forma astratta per svelare il mondo emozionale (lopinionista.it)

In the course of the history of art in the last century, a divide was created between a formal and aesthetic approach and another more closely linked to sensations and the expression of the depths of feeling, regardless of how that feeling was represented; the link with beauty was thus apparently broken by the urge to let emotions flow out, sometimes impetuously. The artist I am going to tell you about today aims to fuse the aesthetic concept with the emotional one to give life to his artworks of great impact.

When there was a profound split between classical aesthetic and executive canons, guided by rigid academic rules, and the more modern need to transform art into a deeper universe, more inclined to transport the observer into an interiority that had been neglected for too long and left in the background, it seemed necessary to completely detach oneself from the concepts belonging to all the previous styles, which were too tied to the observed reality, too impersonal and oriented only towards bringing out beauty through executive perfection. With the advent of photography and the perfection of the cinematographic intuition of the Lumière brothers, pictorial and sculptural representation were no longer the only means of describing characters, landscapes and moments of common life, and so emerged the need to break away from a type of language that was too figurative and by now easily reproducible in order to affirm the supremacy of the creative act, which had to become the only way to create art, understood as something unique, something that the eye could not grasp from the known.

That was the moment when a large group of artists chose to abstain from reality, thus giving birth to Abstractionism, and to distance themselves from every reference, from every link with that familiarity that had to be left behind compared to the superiority of the plastic gesture, of a world that could only be told and represented by virtue of artistic genius. The position of the first theorists of this new style of painting, such as Vassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevic, was as clear-cut as their canvases appeared detached and unemotional, and in fact became comprehensible only to a small group of intellectuals or people of high cultural standing, thus distancing art from the public who could not understand the message contained within their canvases. It was only later, around the 1950s, that was born in the United States an artistic movement that wanted to combine non-form, with all its immediacy and spontaneity, with expressive impetus, with a communicative intent that did not need to pass through the image to reach the observer in a direct, immediate and intense manner. Abstract Expressionism, which was initially opposed by the artistic circles of the time, soon became popular and established itself as a new way of making art, speaking a simple language that could reach the inner chords.

The Greek artist Ioannis Kaiserlis, who had a long experience in the world of building construction and interior design, was fascinated by the immediacy of the abstract expressionist language, also highlighting how non-form is harmonious in an intimate environment such as a flat or a house, precisely because of its expressive and graphic versatility.

Within the sphere of Abstract Expressionism, he moves within the various painting techniques, from Dripping to Color Field, from Grattage to Materico, depending on the emotion or sensation he wishes to imprint on the canvas; at times decidedly more indefinite, at others allowing a glimpse of a form that comes close to what the eye knows, Ioannis Kaiserlis tells of moments, of intensities to which he often cannot give a definition, and consequently not even a title, as well as fragments of memory or sensations more linked to the aesthetic, plastic approach, which is as strong in him as the emotional one.

In Untitled 1, the tendency towards monochrome is evident, even if it is softened by an underlying image, by suffused hues that help to instill a sense of mystery in the observer, to lead him to seek the meaning of that window on the world, of that opening that seems to lead the gaze beyond the surrounding objectivity; the grey scale manifests Kaiserlis’s link with the inner world, that middle ground between rationality and unconsciousness, but also to an aesthetic balance, to a measured and reflective look at the reality that surrounds him.

The same concept of balance, of harmonic contrast, emerges from Asymmetric symmetry, in which the background becomes the basis on which to construct the lines, metaphors for the paths, interweavings and circumstances that follow one another in life and which often seem to be contrary to one another but from which it is impossible to disregard because it is precisely from them that awareness and evolution are generated. The artist uses grattage on the background colour to modify the surface and also the chromatic distinction, which thus appears iridescent and fragmented, like all the events that seem to lose sharpness and intensity with the passage of time.

In the painting Divorce Ioannis Kaiserlis recovers the known image, though leaving it hinted at and undefined, to narrate an unpleasant juncture of existence, that of having to accept the end of a feeling that had been the protagonist but then wore out, faded to the point of demanding the conclusion of the path taken up to that moment; man and woman are facing each other, almost like antagonists rather than lovers, and seem to challenge each other, even that last time, suggesting that not even at the moment of separation is it possible to lower one’s defences and silence, the pride of someone who has perhaps been wounded for too long. The red background represents all the accumulated tensions, the black around the heads tells of the clashes, the differences in point of view and approach to circumstances that continue to hover, indelibly, preventing the two protagonists from saying goodbye in a sweet, serene way.

And again, in Untitled 4 the artist moves on to Material Informalism to represent man’s sense of doubt, disorientation and impotence before the occurrence of events, of that chain of actions and reactions that often take over from the will of the individual; the lines are broken, changing their direction precisely to underline how everything that happens tends to generate endings that are different from those foreseen at the outset, and not necessarily worse but simply unexpected.

Just as in Tree of life, an artwork created using the Dripping technique so dear to Jackson Pollock, Ioannis Kaiserlis emphasizes the importance of a solid base from which to start in order to open up to all the occasions and opportunities that arise and occur in that bizarre journey that is life, leading the individual to grow, to choose, to expand his knowledge. It is from that solid trunk, told through the incisive shadow of black, that one can draw in moments of doubt, disorientation and perplexity, because the values and roots that are part of the interiority of the individual remain indelible despite the winds and storms that one is forced to face in existence. Eclectic and indefatigable artist, Ioannis Kaiserlis decided some years ago to leave the confines of his beloved Greece to make his expressive talent be known abroad, taking part in group exhibitions in Austria, Portugal and Qatar, to the appreciation of the public and critics alike; his artistic profile has been selected for the 2021 edition of the Atlante dell’Arte De Agostini.

Article 7

Ioannis Kaizerlis, art as a point of connection between different experiences and cultures 18/9/2021

The artwork Ioannis Kaizerlis will present at the important event being held in Qatar belongs to the artist’s latest production. Entitled People, it represents not only the story of the events that have marked his artistic career over the last year but also a glimpse of the future that he wants to pursue by continuing to work towards the realisation of his dream, that is, to keep on generating the art that makes him so happy and fulfilled, and to show his paintings around the world. The background of the canvas is decidedly abstract expressionist, albeit delicate and shaded to give greater prominence to the images that form the centre of the canvas; tt seems to be the ideal terrain for dialogue that Kaiserlis entrusts to the main actors, portrayed in a style halfway between Surrealism and Graffitism, a starting point for expressing a universal message, a wish for interconnection between peoples and cultures, a canvas where the faces seem to be united in the indefiniteness of multiplicity, in the polyhedricity of points of view.

The Greek artist, who was born in the town of Veria and currently lives in Athens, came to his artistic expression after a long career in the building trade, both as a builder following in his father’s footsteps and as an interior designer, an experience that has enabled him to experiment and verify how fundamental art is in interacting with living environments and the people who live in them. The emotions awakened by a wall enriched by a painting are amplified and radiated throughout the rest of the room, and are therefore essential to instil a more pleasant atmosphere and harmony in the entire surrounding space. This was the driving force that prompted him to measure himself against those canvases, against that creative world that so fascinated and conquered him in his profession as a decorator that he wanted to generate the sensations he experienced himself. He has always been passionate about art and has visited many museums during his travels abroad, spontaneously approaching Abstractionism in general and Abstract Expressionism in particular, a style of painting that is decidedly akin to his impulsive, exuberant and overwhelming nature, as well as his love of expressive freedom; yes, because Ioannis Kaizerlis does not manage to remain within a defined strand, but feels the need to range, to move from Dripping to Colour Field, from Informal to Lyrical Abstractionism, without ever neglecting the emotional element, the meaning that emerges from the images and colours chosen, which he often keeps returning to, transforming oil and acrylic into a material element, in relief that seems to be the stratification of his inner feeling, of that bursting instinct, followed immediately by the need for reflection and meditation that distinguishes his character. Even the tones are in tune with the mood of the creative moment, so as to become the interpreters of a thought, a consideration or more simply of a juncture observed or distractedly seen; thus the darker atmospheres can alternate with brighter and more vivacious ones without apparent continuity while becoming, precisely because of the expressive freedom essential to Kaizerlis, his main characteristic. The surrealist trait, inspired by the visual immediacy and simplicity of Joan Mirò, emerges from that placing symbols and details, such as eyes and hands, decontextualising them from the general image and giving them a different sense from what they would appear at first glance; the Graffiti Style, on the other hand, is inspired by the rashed and at times impetuous voice of Jean-Michel Basquiat, especially in the distorted definition of faces, as if they were in front of deforming mirrors that allow their real essence to emerge, in which the aesthetic connection is left out and the interiority in its immediacy is highlighted.

The capacity for understanding that comes from openness to others, Kaizerlis seems to suggest with his visual narration, allows us to look beyond appearances, beyond the limits of race, religion and culture, which are a barrier only if we want them to be, while what should instead emerge is a more amused, more surprised approach to those we meet on the journey. The colours chosen by the artist are lively, intense, earthy rather than marine, perhaps because it is in the background that he leaves the impalpability and mobility of the water and sky, emphasising how much of man’s movement, wandering and life encountered takes place in the earth element, that world in which walking, meeting, drinking or eating together is an important and fundamental step towards generating interaction, confrontation and therefore dialogue.

Marta Lock

International Art critic (Id Getty 500490165),

novelist, aforist, essayst, writer of socio-psychology

Article 8

Interpretation of Winter – Described by Marta Lock 26/9/2021

In this canvas, Ioannis Kaiserlis experiments with the technique of Dripping by using two colours with different consistencies, oil and acrylic, allowing one to become the basis of the other, the floor on which to imprint perceived sensations in an impulsive manner. The colour, the white of winter, drips and solidifies just like the snow on the trees when the temperatures are very low; yet going deeper into the meaning of the canvas, the work appears to be a metaphor for an interiority that seems to be still, immobile, faced with events that have in some way cooled its heat, represented by that red on the left side and which creeps in small patches even on the white below. Black instead represents contingency, that series of circumstances that have followed one another, leaving indelible marks capable of modifying the course of events, but also the view of life. On the one hand there seems to emerge resignation towards events that have irreversibly changed the sensitivity of the individual, but on the other hand there is a link with a depth that, in spite of everything, cannot help but emerge and try to dissolve the silence of the soul. Dripping, an instinctive and irrational technique, is mixed with Kaiserlis; meditation, with the ability to go beyond the initial sensations and to take note, accept and only later overcome them; here, then, expressive intensity becomes a point of conjunction with reflection, with that evaluation and weighing up of the consequences of events and of the individual’s own reaction. So winter is the winter of existence, when one chooses to succumb to events instead of metabolising them and drawing the necessary lessons from them to melt away the cold and come out of the paralysis that has ensued.
Marta Lock, International Art critic (Id Getty 500490165), novelist, aforist, essayst, writer of socio-psychology

Article 9

This text was read during the Live Painting of Master Class

https://www.facebook.com/100013878070886/videos/1053030225546421/

https://youtu.be/tqw_F5QhqYQ

Ioannis Kaiserlis, the material and spiritual form of Abstract Expressionism, Marta Lock 19/10/2021

The approach to a spontaneous and immediate form of art is mainly governed by the world of emotions, by the ability to connect with the deepest self and to feel and then manifest everything that moves within that self; it is precisely on the basis of this expressive mode that takes shape the pictorial impulse of Ioannis Kaizerlis who cannot help but choose Abstract Expressionism, which he approaches spontaneously.

His communicative intent is as strong as his experimental approach to the canvas, revealing an innate versatility that allows him to move between Action Painting, closer to Jackson Pollock, the Lyrical Abstractionism of Vassilij Kandinskij, which in some cases moves towards the Surrealism of Joan Mirò and a slight tendency towards the Street Art of Jean Michel Basquiat, especially in canvases that maintain a more figurative, albeit highly stylised, base. In some cases the material enters the canvas to create a more incisive connection with the surrounding environment, while in others it is the colour itself that, layered on several levels, thickens to emphasise the extent and consistency of the impetus that provoked the overwhelming manifestation of the artist’s emotionality. Kaizerlis’s contact with the canvas is so immediate, so atavistic, that he needs to return again and again to modify its final appearance until the moment in which he manages to be moved, in which the pathos is so intense that he is forced to stop because at that moment he knows he has reached full connection with his deepest feelings, which will then be able to reach the observer with the same intensity.

In his artistic career, which is constantly evolving, the artist has moved from a more meditative style close to the Color Field, particularly in his early works, to a more primordial impetus, consisting of pure instinct and without any expressive rules; his subsequent evolution has led him towards a more refined style, less overwhelming but always involving, both for his research into colours, intense, full and adhering to the feelings he wishes to communicate, and for a slight return to a vaguely figurative representation, although always surreal and tending towards the abstract universe, within which the observer’s gaze is lost in search of the meaning, the message hidden in those curved lines, in those subjects halfway between Basquiat’s scratches and Mirò’s childlike world.

He does not, however, renounce the primordial part, that Action Painting which, in these artworks, acts as a background, a solid ground on which to operate in order to allow a greater expressive clarity to emerge, a search for a language that arrives more directly while remaining in the world of the indefinite, like the emotional facets, like the singularity of an interpretation that cannot but be linked to the experience of those who receive the images. The works of his most recent period constitute further experimentation on Kaizerlis’s part, experimentation in which he measures himself against the duplicity of reality, the relativity of points of view, the subjectivity of the observed and the perceived, to the point of choosing to paint both sides of the canvas, not with a solution of continuity, not with a connection between one side and the other, but with a clear break, almost an opposition of expressive message that strikes the observer by virtue of its contradiction, but which basically underlines the multiplicity of the realities in which society, the human being and everyday life take place, constituting the very basis of the acceptance of diversity.

He is currently creating a production in which he mixes art and fashion, creating not only artist’s briefcases decorated with his Dripping but also clothing such as t-shirts and trousers into which he inserts details of his creativity. Kaizerlis has exhibited his artworks in Vienna, Lisbon and in the coming months he will be in Qatar and Milan, a rapidly growing career that has led him to be selected by the De Agostini Atlas of Contemporary Art for being included in the 2021 edition.

Marta Lock, International Art critic (Id Getty 500490165), novelist, aphorist, essayist, writer of socio-psychology

Article 10

KAIZER IOANNIS KAISERLIS AND AN OVERVIEW OF HIS ART 02/07/2022

The paintings, which reveal the meaningful relationship of the divided colored main forms by filling in smaller forms, are based on the artist’s own inner reality from the outside to the inside, like a game. At first glance, it can be thought that each main form area completes the composition with different colors and smaller elements that fill the space. However, although these areas that make up the forms take their place in the artist’s fiction, they are painting elements on their own, independent from the targeted composition. Sometimes they surprise the viewer as complex, sometimes minimal paintings. This libertarian situation dramatically affects the visual perception of the viewer. Thus, the same viewer sees that the artist reflects his spiritual structure on his canvas in a bold way. The painter often throws aside a calculated aesthetic arrangement in his paintings. Because that aesthetic order is already fully present in its own spiritual interpretation, interiority and emotional accumulation of pure enthusiasm. That is, paintings often contain extreme emotional fluctuations with unexpected outbursts in the face of the measurable stability of geometry.

As the work progresses, the forms in his works are transformed into more abstract and comprehensive expressions with different meanings apart from their simple meaning and form, not as they appear to the audience. Although the art audience does not know Kaizer Ioannis Kaiserlis and his past and present life with which he interacts, by looking at the artist’s paintings, they can feel that his works are shaped by the memories of his past life. This is fascinating for both the painter and the viewer. The language of dominant forms and intertwined colored and smaller complementary forms or elements used by Kaiserlis in his works seems to be encrypted. The artist dissolves and obscures his forms as if in a mystery he wants the audience to solve. Because, while he is moving his brush through the main form areas, the additions he makes remove the form from the perception of the symbol it carries and reconstructs it with its unexpected dynamics. However, when the painting is finished, what we see in the compositional integrity is a strong instinct to exist. Finally, in his paintings, the energy that creates an impressive force towards the viewer is thus released.

It would not be wrong to think that the painter deals with the intertwined formal and informal forms, lines, and their meaning (symbol), ratio and color relations with each other from the framework he sees. At the same time, the artist makes his paintings feel the sociological and psychological contradictions created by his private life, which he lives in, and the near and far geography to which this life is connected with its sins and merits. The forms and colors that make up their compositions have a heavy traffic. When examining the reasons for the crucial effect of this movement, it is seen that in each of the forms, a different “moment” that the artist lived before is recreated in his paintings from a psychological point of view. This surreal or abstract feature in paintings is sociological enough to tell a sometimes dramatic and sometimes entertaining story or multiple stories that reflect the sum of interconnected or different “moments” and change in each painting, when the effects of the subconscious are left aside. However, unless attention is paid to these sociological clues, they either remain in the background of the fiction or are overlooked. Kaiserlis tries to remain impartial in his paintings and show the viewer from both sides of the window the world he is impressed with, with its good and bad sides. This world is the artist’s own world, who creates his own special language with abstract forms and elements from which concrete results can be drawn. Thus, the consistent relationship he establishes between the concrete reality of the outside world he is influenced by and the abstract forms that reflect this reality from the inside to the outside, are successfully handled by the artist in his works.

As a result; artist Kaizer Ioannis Kaiserlis continues to successfully study elements such as color, form and element in the spaces he constructs freely, beyond their real meanings, from a psychological and sometimes sociological point of view, and to create a unique art style.

Pinar Bingol

Plastic Arts Writer/Artist

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Article 11

Symbolism in painting KaiZer Ioannis Kaiserlis 18/07/2022

The nature of symbolic experience in the works of this artist

The nature of symbolic experience in the works of this great artist requires special sensibility when describing his painting opus from the point of view of symbolism, as well as poetic outlines that inspire his paintings, all acting in moments of special artist experimentation through different colors, valences and all present accentuated contrasts. Kaiserlis, as a master of expressing freedom, ubiquitous in his works, regardless of the techniques he cultivates, manages to combine all the elements he encountered during his life, turning them into his own symbolism. His poetics, as well as his examples of colors, customs, miraculous forms, introduce us to a world of painting that must be layered. He asks us, as if conscientious audiences, to all interpret the symbol very much, and to look through the labyrinth of those symbols for the symbol that we actually intimately miss. This symbolism, that is, the natural symbolic expression in him, becomes healing for the observer. According to his painting hypersensitivity, this modern artist can currently be ranked among the biggest and most important names of international symbolic expression.

1 Miraculous hyperproductivity through the dance of colors and stimuli

In which case is this creative hyperproductivity positive, and where does it become a limiting factor? The discrepancy between life and work is not visible here, because the painter turns his form of what is seen into pointless art, skillfully playing with our perception. There is no superficial meaning and no disagreement here, because everything was created as a product of the painter’s experience, skillfully painted on canvas. This naked depiction of life is a real reflection of what I am experiencing within my microcosm. If we look at the beginning of this chapter and the narrative of hyperproductivity, we will notice that not all forms of it play a forced role, but a dance of colors and stimuli that is an inseparable part of the artist’s being.
His painting narrative is very rich, as evidenced by his canvases, formats in which he skillfully maneuvers like a sword steaming the sky, and poetically through his colors and movements we can so easily imagine because while creating he gives us a special experience of presence within the space where he creates. The painter’s almost irrational combination of colors, by projecting a strong inner experience, reminds of painters who belonged to lyrical abstraction. Lyrical abstraction through French frames is demonstrated in Pock’s painting, and as such it does not reflect on the paintings of this genius artist whose work starts from lyrical abstraction, through pointless art, and closes the circle with symbolism as such. However, this type of symbolism goes beyond real concepts, and teaches us to boldly step on the path of color observation and mutual communication between them.

Observing the works of the artist, we come to the realization that the chronological part is very important to him in his creative process. In the triptych: The wave of Venetian life, the paintings are reminiscent of a mosaic whose parts symbolically indicate the secrets of the sea depths, traces of the movement of cruise ships to the Holy Land, from which they will deliver treasure to Western Europe. His testimony is so authentic that we remain silent before him. All of his subtitled paintings have a specific Creation Order label, testifying that it is important for the artist to have a certain creative prefix in the cycles that emerge, as a living testimony to how important chronology is in his work. This above-mentioned triptych, an oil on canvas technique, dominant at the time of its creation from 2019 to 2020, interestingly, is of different sizes: I Creation Order 47.2 x 39.4, in 150 x 100 cm, II Creation Order 47.2 x 31.5 and 120 x 80 cm, III Creation Order 59 x 39.4 and 150 x 100 cm.

However, it is problematic to draw extremely arbitrary conclusions about how the work itself came into being, and its process of creation is very important. An artist to whom the Orthodox religion is all-encompassing in his work, and a guiding star, as if he wished to give autonomy to his work through it, thus showing what is the heritage of the culture to which he belongs, and which for centuries brought new in artistic directions. stand out for his genius. Through this triptych one can penetrate the thoughts of this artist. He so easily seduces the audience through symbolic processes and gives him the constant task of observing his paintings with inspiration, learning through them about ancient civilizations. In his later works, we will see the fusion of incredible cultures as a result of his travels, through the Maya, the Aztecs, the Incas, then Egypt, Persian art unique in many ways, and of course Western European culture and art as such.

2 The revolution forms woven into the symbolism of painting cycles

In the second larger cycle, which is interesting for deeper observation, we notice significant changes, as for greater experimentation within forms and shapes, usually a circle, as a perfect shape, or spiral shapes, we see a well-established harmony of composition. Academism equal to the Symbolists. The symbolic names of the paintings „Soul Paths”, „Dancing with waves”, „Composition of colors”, „Oxygen” of course, they also brought a very clear narrative from the artist’s most intimate parts of the soul. Of course, some other paintings belonging to this cycle very tendentiously do not have names. The movements are more dynamic within this cycle, and everything exudes a special kind of expression.

Through the visible Gauguin expressiveness, as well as the connection with the elements of abstract expressionism, the probably unconscious influence of Russian avant-garde painters such as: Tatjana Glebova, Ivan Kljun, and of course Vasily Kandinsky is visible. It is interesting that the form and color in this cycle called „Big” may be due to the diversity of the above mentioned influences, although it is an unconscious connection that arose as a result of many travels of only artists around the world, but also his primary earlier occupation. regarding constructions, and constructivism even as such. In the second cycle called „Small”, we find the presence of increasing freedom both in expression and form, and a much clearer approach to the expressionist aspirations that will become dominant over time, but will again be overcome by symbolism. This new painterly legacy that leaves us to admire the artist of his daily diary notes seems to represent just like this. With freedom in expression and color, he never calculates with his likeability, because he is likable in himself through his expression and his creativity. And again, the symbolic titles of „Forgiveness”, „Mask” as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, „Collection of mysteries”, „Double I”, „Dobule II”, „Double”, become a lasting testimony that his art is the result of not only global events, but the result of his almost uncontrollable desire for expressiveness. In the following chapters, we will deal with the vision of cycles that masterfully end with the „Objects” cycle, where the genesis of almost all opuses or cycles, whatever you call them, is clear to the literate observer. It shows how strongly this art is created, in what way it is born and from what, towards which it strives all the time … Art was born from hunger for presenting the inner „I”in the best possible way in terms of painting and plasticity.

3 Cosmic connections through painting cycles and its artistic presentation

Cycles called Part 3 a, Part 3 b, Part 4, Part 5 a, Part 5 b, c. Diptychs, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 a. colors, Part 9 b. black & white, Part 9 a red, Part 10, until Part 13, represent painting scenes connected with elements of the Russian avant-garde whose most significant names we have mentioned by connecting them with this ingenious contemporary artist, whose strong desire for expression directs his artistic performances, we believe that they are woven to the very edges of a refined mind transformed into visible metaphors that we must deal with. In the Part 3 cycle a. we will notice the names of the paintings as: „The Depths of the centuries”, a painting created during the covid-19 pandemic as a testimony to the declining civilizations merged into one.

The artistic mood is a reflection of the disgusting suffering reality in which faith is the only cure represented by the title „Nature and Concrete”, then the titles „The strange childhood of boys”, „Reproduction” … Through them we see the chronology of his thoughts from that remembering the boy’s strange childhood will lead to reproduction and thus close the circle. Through the image “Reproduction” one can see the personification of the uterus that is giving birth, it should give birth and give birth to a fetus. We know almost nothing about the fetus. We do not recognize the zygote, but we see the fetus. Thus, the chronology of conception from a medical point of view is disturbed here. This cycle also ends very symbolically with an untitled painting, created on August 23. 2021.- Creation Order 207, size 11.8 x 15.7 and 30 x 40 cm. In that cinnabar red on the canvas we recognize perhaps uterine bleeding that kills that “non-existent” zygote. Did that zygote really exist or did it come into being as a mere projection? Here the painter offers us much more than the scientific reality we know. All the following cycles testify to his authentic painting manuscript, and we will see around them: “What are the signifiers of psychological changes in the context of the presented aesthetics?” From Part 4, through Part 5 and „Red Abstract”, a different texture is visible, and shapes that are not, but there is no separation from the mystical red color, which is both an evil fate and a symbol of the new birth. In Part 5, we will notice the title of the painting „The Forest of Happiness” as a result of the artist’s will to move joy through the creative process. In phase c. Diptychs play of black, white and red skillfully interwoven through diptychs, and duality, as a tendency to come to the conclusion again by the analytical method that form is at the center of every objective study. The work of art thus becomes both. The content offered to us here weighs from the conceptual to the emotional energy that turns into the expressiveness of the form.

4 Expressiveness as the pursuit of constant wandering

The emphasized or even overemphasized desire for harmony could not overcome the constant tendency towards expressiveness that is dominant since Part 6, where we meet the being of an artist who puts his past, present and future in a timeless context. The harmony of colors is, however, more ubiquitous here. Through Part 7, and Part 8, we see a vibrating desire for experimentation that will culminate in Part 9 b. black & white, bravura experiments as in graphics, testify that the artist has entered a phase where he is no longer a slave to form and content but offers much more. He dared to disturb the harmonious harmony and slowly introduces us to a wonderful creative discontinuity. Through Part 10, Part 11, and Part 12, a very subjective experience is noticeable, which he successfully transmits to the artistically literate observer. It is obvious that in Part 12, with the predominant green color, we would say that the green powder we usually associate with Dutch masters of the 17th century, we see that it moves from melancholy to philosophical contemplation of nature in which it finds much-needed peace. to the observer. Here he is more of a visionary of the soul than a painter. From Part 13 he begins to weave a very personal, intimate story of symbolic titles of paintings: „Divorce”, „Wounded Nature”, „Greece”, „Debris” through forms showing images of diseased tissues as if we were looking at them under a microscope. How wounded is this painterly soul floating within its parallel universe? It can be rightly said that we may have before us one of the greatest contemporary creators of painting, but he will always consciously deny it. In his next cycles, if we look at paintings at random with perceptual means, we will come to the realization that from Part 13, and very intimate painting diary notes, all the way to Part 16, we see a dramatic psychological struggle translated into a very fairytale painterly expression. the power of his personal victory, embodied in a strong painterly stimulus, slowly reaches Part 16. While in Part 16, all the way to Part 20-Objects, we will notice what we will talk about in more detail with more artistic information woven into a brighter, more layered and demanding phase come to a very specific painting narrative, dedicated in the next chapter on the work of this artist.

5 Rich painterly narrative

The increasingly cheerful color reminiscent of Juan Miró, and his game of dominance with the painters of the Russian avant-garde who left an unconscious artistic mark in his work so far, resulted in a new and bolder expression. If we turn everything into the most objective critique, we will understand that everything was created as a result of a rich artistic painting narrative, and it could not have come by itself. He was built by the artist, through many travels, encounters with magnificent international architectural objects, the impression he carried from his travels, and thus weaved this rich painting narrative. Ending his cycles in a very specific way, from the constant striving for chronology to some desire for freedom and creative discontinuity. The painter will „talk” about his lyrical abstraction as a result of everything he has experienced in Part 20-Objects, where he will return to the original expressiveness, symbolism and plasticity in his work, thus somehow warning us that his paintings are just beginning to live a new materialized life.

This strong painterly interpretation is an expression of subjectivity, of course, but much more a desire for the world to remember the name of this great contemporary artist, in whose efforts he needs help with excellent art criticism, and give future impetus to his work. His painting chronology, however, does not cease to live through us, and in ourselves.

Ana Novaković Art historian and curator

Article 12

The poetics of abstract expressionism in Ioannis Kaiserlis 08/09/2022

Ioannis Kaiserlis KaiZer is a painter with a very specific painting style, and it is almost difficult to fit him or bring him closer to a certain painting direction. This wonderful artist was born in 1974 in Veria, and now lives and creates in Athens. As someone who has been successfully engaged in construction for many years, observing the interior and exterior, over time he will learn new dimensions of the artistic being, and penetrate into the recesses of the artistic property, thus discovering the desire to express himself through sculpture and painting as media. He is a participant in several international exhibitions such as: Vienna Art Summer 2021. (Public Artists gallery) and Lisbona Contemporanea 2021. (Atelier Natalia Gromicho gallery), as well as Qatar (Doha) 2022. And of course he is famous as an internationally recognized artist with a truly extensive artistic oeuvre. Thus, as a painter, he is more interesting to art theorists, and to those who want to observe this extremely substantial, rich, imaginative artist who is hyperproductive because he constantly transforms his ideas into form, expression, play of light, through rich voluminousness, in a deeper and more layered way. And thus, not sparing himself through his painterly expression, we meet an artist who richly testifies with his paintings of actually two directions to which he belongs, namely: abstract expressionism and symbolism. His ingenious interpretability connected with abstract expressionism is actually a painter’s testimony through which in a subtle way with color and form (still form, although it is almost a redundant word within this direction) he achieves an interaction with painters such as: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.
He unconsciously takes us back to the fifties of the 20th century through his astonishing painting skills, walking us through the studios of the above-mentioned painters, while skillfully introducing us to his world of subtly woven symbolism.
In his paintings, we will notice dynamic movements created by a skilled painter’s hand, innovative techniques that deserve to be written about separately, expressive charge, mysticism through the explosiveness of colors, theatrical forms woven into the picture, which is a revolutionary attempt so far, but it deserves special attention. His desire for interpretation is equal to the desire at the level of unconsciousness that color, expression, form, light, become part of the theater. He leads you with his image to dance, again as part of the theater, and introduces you to an interactive relationship (again a theatrical form), and then offers participation (the same form) without allowing you to “exit” his image.
You enter almost unconsciously into his rich inner life whose reflexivity becomes predominant in the painting Creation Order 179. acrylic, 03/06/2021. size: 19.7 x 23.6 in 50 x 60 cm, with which he invites us to total involvement, and an appeal that, by God’s permission, you can feel it through the color and the form in which it wants to tell you its deeply intimate story.

Its colors are as intonal as the sounds, and you just have to feel them. He transforms color into sound, and it is no longer just a fine art composition, it is also a musical one, and everything arises at the level of the deeply unconscious. This deeply personal intimate dance, where black is predominant as a color, is actually the artist’s testimony, that from hell or the vortex of an emotional hell in which the soul dances, it as such can find different ways to salvation…Through God, through art, through constant artistic research and questioning… Here we clearly see an artist who is constantly questioning himself and looking for innovative solutions, as if at some source of new ski colors, new palettes, he reveals a new and different world to the observer of his work, and thus maybe just encourages him to creates, and builds the creative process. This is how this brave artist opened a new door of art with his artistic expression and expression, calling us to be both his critics and his students, because he constantly creates and builds, and thus selflessly delights us through his creativity.

Ana Novaković Art historian and curator

Article 13

Symbolic structures in painting Ioannis Kaiserlis that inspire (17/10/2022)

Ioannis Kaiserlis is an artist whose symbolism inspires, forces everyone who looks at his works to the creative process. The image as a transmitter of thoughts and feelings that this artist presents to us with his symbolic structures on the compositions seems like a cry of the soul, and here we will talk about a very different composition that has a cosmological meaning, and the foundation for its interpretation comes precisely from the symbols that the painter presents on it. As the painter leans in his previous works towards post-expressionism, which is somehow occupied by his being, here we will interpret through the painting symbols that are much more than that. He puts it to us as a challenge, as a beginning in which we speak with his thoughts. Why does the exhibited image make us think like this? We have before us a genius visionary who paints symbols on a red background, combining culturally impossible wooden civilizations such as Greek and Egyptian, and of course symbols that refer to the Mayans and Incas. That incompatibility, which is so reflected in his painting, stimulates our mind to create incredible creations, through sentences that follow themselves, we slowly come to the realization that this almost masterpiece of contemporary art deserves an extensive analysis. In his earlier works, everyone saw a magical expressionist, a post-expressionist who leaves no one indifferent with his dynamism, and now we have before us a visionary who seems to have come from ancient Greece and teleported into the modern world, giving ancient symbols new shapes, forms and a new concept through his vision. of a contemporary artist…And there it remains that we constantly admire that kind of genius in this artist.

Searching for the perfect form with which he could transfer his thoughts to the canvas, and open to us the corner where the deep inner “I” is located, we see spiral structures interconnected, intertwined within which we again discover new content, and within it we enter the lagoons of new interpretations, which are again deeply interconnected. Skillfully playing with contrasts like sets of red and green, ocher and blue, gold and blue, black and white, white which we won’t say is a color, but is perfectly integrated into the compositional structure. We never deal with the texture and voluminousness of this wonderful artist, but with the structures of symbolism and the symbols that he gives us. The painting seems to glorify ancient life, but still puts it in a modern context, and we must never forget that. Why is it important to him that this is expressed in form and color? To what extent does he consciously draw us into his rich inner life, or does he do it unconsciously? All we have to do is keep thinking…

If we look at the picture for a longer time, we will see that its dynamism, which bathes us, seems to turn into peace for a moment, and from a vortex of conscious passion and passion we enter into a union of peace and harmony, because it is equally important for us to understand the secrets of this one can rightly say that he is a genius artist. What we experience while looking at this painting, but still relying on the overall work of the artist, represents part of the evolutionary artistic process that this wonderful artist actually consciously drew us into. This constant search for the perfect form that he will find and that he strives to find is a new experience for us in which we live, it becomes a part of our future desires and lives, so that the artist’s desire for a deeper connection with both the artistic and literate public, as well as and the general public whose educational or any structure does not influence that they do not perceive the image the way they want, but that it simply cries out to remain in the eye and mind of the viewer for a long time, or even permanently.

The courage and desire for constant experimentation during the creative process is also visible here, although at times the artist gives off someone who is mysterious and difficult to interpret, he still delights us with his sharpness through simple, spiral shapes that give us color, and introduce us to its beautiful inner, deeply layered world thirsty for constant learning in painting, from there, from that need for expression, we slowly come to expression, although here we are only talking about the structures of symbolism, nothing beyond that. The desire for simplicity and the desire for constant dynamism constantly alternate in the eye of the beholder, and this is where the key to the beauty of this artist lies. Representing in the best way his intimate desire to create through contemporary painting, the artist is also the best representative of the contemporary art of his country, to the joy of his citizens and fellow citizens, but also of others who make up his audience on the international stage, because he already has an established international career, and the artist, with no small exhibition experience, is a witness to this.

The respectability of this painter is visible and recognizable in many ways, because anyone who looks at this painting will see that he actually carries it in his mind, after leaving the exhibition space. It is not necessary to enter wider artistic circles, and look for this artist, because the realization that we never part with his works in the artistic sense awakens only joy in us, as well as our new paths that we walk in search of the painting and craft skills that he also gives us. The most beautiful part of this painter’s manuscript, unique in many respects, and the beauty of this artistic expression, is actually in the fact that the painter does not offer us an illusion, he forces us to constantly think, but gives us the beauty of his shapes and colors, and cosmological meanings that we can find in each presented symbol individually. We are left to enjoy his works constantly inspired to think about the structures of symbolism with which he rewarded us and gave us to remember them, while giving us the freedom to interpret them according to our own heart and soul.

Ana Novaković
Art historian and curator

Article 14

Elements of constructivism in the painting manuscript of Ioannis Kaiserlis (26/02/2022)

Through this critical review, we will try, relying on psychological interpretations, to unravel the deep layers of the inner being of this truly wonderful artist, and to convey to the audience, through his artistic narration, which elements are crucial for his creativity. Through this painting whose interpretations we will deal with, we will show and indicate his personal experience and the very concept of modern art. This great artist who very boldly and decisively builds his painting path, does not necessarily impose his opinion on us as the only relevant one through color and form, he only asks us to hear and see what he means by color and form. In this painting that we interpret in this critical review, which is almost a testimony of the earlier works of Ioannis Kaiserlis, (and it does not have any symbolic title), oil & acrylic 17.10. 2019 – Creation Order: size 47.2 x 31.5 in 120 x 80 cm oil & acrylic, it already has the function of being a composition and existing as such within any space.

Is it a museum space, a gallery space or will it become part of a collection? We don’t know it, but overwhelmed by its beauty, we can use the expressiveness it offers us to convey our professional impressions… This painting has elements of both constructivism and abstract expressionism, because its form cannot be tied to abstract expressionism as such, when we talk and think about everything that makes this direction unique. The painter could easily come up with a special constructivist form, (this seems like a pleonasm, if we put constructivism and form together, but it’s not…), because he was engaged in construction for a long time, and he is a good connoisseur not only of the exterior as such, but also interior. It is not necessary to know a lot about the biography of this artist because he shows it so transparently through his painting narrative, i.e. through color and form. Here the gray color is dominant, with all its valerians, and it seems that with its relief texture it actually shows either the bark of a tree, or the layers of a building that is in the process of devastation. That’s why she is more challenging to interpret, and here we don’t necessarily have to tie her or find connections with any Russian constructivist, because she is unique in many ways. If we look back at the psychological interpretations, we will notice the layers, are they the layers of the soul?

And does that soul have color? Can the soul as such have color? We are entering a new field of metaphysical experiences, into which we did not just step uninvited, because we have just come to this realization through the painter’s aspirations, which is a reflection of his artistic genius.

Analyzing individual elements of the platic layer, we notice that there is an aspiration to establish balance and order, through the arrangement of internal chaos, without special contrasts to the harmonization of internal energy in order to establish the necessary harmony and balance. Thus, the painting movement here leads to the desired peace and offers us a sense of tranquility, and reconciliation with all that makes life transient, and therein lies the beauty of this painting composition. If we look again at the elements of constructivism from which we cannot escape, we can find a complex similarity, but also a variable similarity with the famous painting “The Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich (1915), oil on canvas, 79.5 x 79.5 cm, which naturally located in the famous Tretyakov Gallery. This picture actually represents a way of approaching design in architecture, but then we do not see a certain variability in the picture of Kaiserlis, because the we realizing that we have come to this point of view mitation or association on the bark of a tree, by its texture, or on a facade in the process of devastation still represents some kind of construction, even if it is it enters the process of devastation itself, but before that it had its constructive elements.

And finally, what we have to say is the interplay of opposite forces, or the interaction between color and hints of abstraction, as well as constructive elements in this image, so through meaning, through metaphor, to the relief texture in this image, we see an almost mental as well as technical unification, from which we arrive at the cultural phenomena that this image contain. Although we ended the chapter with the words and at the end…we cannot resist the impression that we left the viewer with no answer regarding the perception of the very relief of the painting, with which the artist shows a clear attitude not only towards the devastated buildings, as such, but also towards the world. Thus, not only an artistic and philosophical relationship to the world is revealed here through the image, i.e. the materialization of it, but also a critical relationship that has a philosophical weight, through this almost stuttering and playing with words and stylistic figures, and for that we owe and are grateful to the painter himself, who deserves his painting to be found in an eminent gallery space, or a rich collection of contemporary art of the 21st century.

Ana Novaković

Art historian and curator

Article 15

Elements of abstract expressionism in the paintings manuscript of Ioannis Kaiserlis (26/02/2023)

In this picture, which also has no symbolic name, but with its inspiring color invites us to be deeply involved in its name, that is, to communicate with our eye as a means of perception not only with colors but also with the elements of abstract expressionism to which it belongs. Name „Creation order: 010”, 14/12/2019, size: 27.5 x 31.5 in 70 x 80 cm, due to its color and abstraction, we can easily connect this painting with the famous Jackson Pollock and his painting „Convergence”.

Bearing in mind the aesthetic components that connect these images, we encounter two actually different aesthetic entities that almost breathe the same, and we must not forget that. Although their independent existence actually gives two special dimensions almost metaphysically connected, to us by some strange laws. This is how the creation of this piece by Kaiserlis found a truly miraculous way to Pollock, so he can rightly be called the European Jackson Pollock.

There are only certain similarities here that arose from the unconscious in the artist and thus led to the connection with Pollock. Of course, we will avoid here an almost school discussion about what similarities are and what are not, because we have already referred to the unconscious, which through the conscious told its story with color. With a deeper analysis, we will notice as if the painter is fighting some great and almost unknown internal battles that we as observers very consciously fall in love with, and as in a bullfight we cheer for the victory of his alter ego, because he boldly put this in front of us with color.

Ioannis’s visions transferred to the canvas are exactly reminiscent of the painting „Kosovo” by the famous Serbian painter Petar Lubarda due to its strong color, play of colors. Here, the relationship of the whole led almost to the absence of any order, but the desire to establish harmony as such is still noticeable. The play of white, yellow, ocher yellow, red, gray reminds us of a tango of colors, of a comic moment that keeps our attention all the time. If we look more closely at this composition, we will come to the realization that this collision of inconsistency, the absence of order, nevertheless leads to the necessary establishment of order. The relationship of color tones easily transforms the entire composition, so every art-literate observer can experience it very subjectively, and from that point of view of a vortex come again to the realization of discovering those deepest secrets and struggles that each of us has suppressed within ourselves.

In the earlier painting compositions of this artist, we met with an almost explosive red or cinnabar red, which is full of emotional and conceptual energy, and now we meet with gray in the first picture, and with a tango of colors in the second that make up the above-mentioned colors, which we will to be mentioned again: yellow, ocher yellow, white, gray, parts of red that appear almost in patches, as well as parts of blue…so that by changing the colors, although we are not talking about the chronological creation of the paintings here, we gain an insight that the painter’s palette brought us closer to the painter’s the soul. We have fulfilled our mission of critical narration, just as this genius artist gave us as a task, constantly delighting us and putting before us new painting challenges, important for us to interpret, and for him an incredible process of creation, and further incentives in creating an expressive charge as such.

Ana Novaković

Art historian and curator