Sky, 1970
Water taps, wood, barrel, rubber pipes, and oil paint on Plexiglas
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Acquired in 2002, with a subsidy from the Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance
Risk of Death, 1968
Iron, rubber, light
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Presented as part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift
Costas Tsoclis came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his landmark, deeply conceptual series Objects, conceived while the artist was living in Paris and exploring existential, perceptual, and ontological themes. Two critical works from this era exemplify Tsoclis’s subversion of visual perception: Risk of Death (1968) and Sky (1970). Created during a time when the artist was garnering widespread international attention through exhibitions across Europe and the USA, these groundbreaking works fundamentally disrupt the traditional rules of painting. Using materials such as iron, rubber, wood, and water taps combined with paint, these pieces bridge the gap between tangible reality, illusion, and fictitious aesthetic space. Through inventive perspective and deceptive trompe-l’oeil techniques, Tsoclis transforms ordinary, found objects into visually striking, physically imposing compositions, which resemble three-dimensional drawings in space. These specific works act as spatial interventions, questioning the nature of truth by challenging visual restrictions and pulling the viewer directly into a misleading, newly constructed reality.
Costas Tsoclis stands as one of modernism’s most remarkable pioneers in second-half 20th-century Greece. Following studies in Athens, he relocated to Rome in 1957 and subsequently to Paris, pursuing an international career that would be defined by ceaseless experimentation across painting, sculpture, and video. His expansive oeuvre spans distinct thematic phases. His earliest works from 1959 utilised cement and coal on raw burlap, moving away from traditional representation toward a painting practice whose end result physically projected outward as a three-dimensional object. He would later turn to ephemeral media, employing newspaper and rice paper in works that incorporated drawing on transient surfaces to underscore the fleeting nature of human truth and life. His Nature series marks a shift in his practice as the natural world comes into focus. Sea-themed canvas reliefs and ecologically-themed installations, such as Colossal Nature Morte, exemplify his concern over environmental destruction and the modern, severed relationship between humanity and the natural world. Ultimately, his innovative Live Painting series of the mid-1980s, which used video projections onto painted surfaces, expanded painting into moving imagery, blurring the boundaries between them and ensuring his legacy as an artist who brilliantly merged reality and illusion.
Costas Tsoclis was born in Athens in 1930, where he lives and works.
