ART FOR ALL

This is the name of one of the latest creative ideas (2014) of the painter and architect Makis Warlamis. The artist worked intensively and created a huge collection of more than 1000 paintings. Each of these original authentic works has dimensions of 50 x 50 cm and represents a multifaceted world of ideas, colors and free composition, which is modern, timely and emotional. The artist himself writes about this project to his friend Mikis Theodorakis: ...I am currently enthralled by a project that I have worked on with my soul intensively in recent times and painted 1000 works with dimensions of 50 X 50 centimeters that I made available to the general public of Austria for charitable purposes and without personal financial benefit. I am thinking of painting 1000 new works and making them available for our homeland. The act is not only charitable but refers to the abusive treatment of art by big capital. Within this action there are many interesting thoughts, such as the eternal form of art that does not end in a specific form but shows the greatness of the joy of life. A thousand works so that everyone can acquire a work of art... It is also a small, gentle passive resistance so that art can escape from financial arrogance... These works characterize the current art of the 21st century, the art of ecstatic creation that does not seek academic perfectionism, as in "art for art's sake", but is directed towards the emotional connection that creates the feeling of community. It is a new expression of art that shows the vastness of artistic creation without the rules and limits of intellectual treatment. It goes beyond the limits of expert evaluation, it expresses the vision and passion of the creator. It is art as a sign of solidarity, kindness and love. “If one delves, in the positive sense, into this vast kaleidoscope of hundreds of images, it becomes clear what the artist is thinking with it. Because there are not only all the classic themes of painting, such as portraits and landscapes, still lifes with vases of flowers or fruit and houses, animals, beaches, mountains, nudes but also beyond these exotic situations such as some Pacific beaches, but even fantastic glimpses into a cosmic space of imagination. Even more, it is clear that Warlamis here is processing his own gaze and his own experiences on some classic artists of the modern era. … But these images also act unprotected: they do not have the armor of aesthetic perfection and painterly sophistication. It is more like spontaneous diary entries than a dramatically and aesthetically complete novel.”