The Personal Artistic Reading of Andreas Georgiadis

Nikos Vatopoulos
Kathimerini Newspaper, 2019

There is an imaginary line: Athens, Venice, Constantinople, Alexandria, and from there London, Kavala, Crete. Intersecting circles, either as reservoirs of inspiration or as cities of reception, revealing an elusive common homeland, with the memory of a dying urban civilization. For Andreas Georgiadis, the re-exploration of a "shared, lost world," imbued with the universality of the Hellenistic perception of the Mediterranean and the empathy derived from a fixation on the recesses of history, leads to a new reading of landscapes. His latest body of work, "Constantinople," all in ink on handmade paper, after being presented for the first time in Athens at Genesis Gallery by George Tzaneris, curated by Iris Kritikou, and after traveling to Kavala at the House of Mohamed Ali, and to London at the Hellenic Centre, is now preparing for Crete. This is a significant event, as the paths of his investigative work over the past years converge and culminate in places laden with memories of a distinct cultural imprint.

Andreas Georgiadis is an artist who has elevated urban geography into cultural penetration and historical radiography. He approaches all these elements with literature, history, and architecture as his co-pilots. His "Constantinople" is a personal reading, a distillation of years of observation and study.

Of course, all these would have their significance, but their resonance would remain limited if the very essence of the artistic work, the art itself—with a capital A—did not take precedence and hold a leading role. Andreas Georgiadis, perhaps instinctively heeding his inner voice, gradually builds an artistic edifice in chapters and references, forming a corpus of history and memory that resonates deeply with every Greek. Standing before "Constantinople" (or his earlier "Alexandria" inspired by Lawrence Durrell—a previous artistic endeavor that contributes to this great "frame" of Mediterranean universalism), one perceives the artist's need to dive into the deepest roots, the tree of history, and its branches. It is a grand composition on the canvas of Byzantine and Ottoman Constantinople. But what prevails is the gaze, the choice, and naturally, the aesthetics. The colored inks of Andreas Georgiadis—his sepias, mauves, and greens—are, in themselves, a story.

Now, in Crete, "Constantinople" is tasked with attracting audiences in two distinct venues. There will be two stops in Crete. The first in Heraklion, at the atmospheric Basilica of St. Mark (July 11–22), and the second in Rethymno (July 25–August 12), at the Carob Mill in Panormo, a unique venue suitable for distinguished musical and cultural events. Andreas Georgiadis's "Constantinople" begins in 220 AD with the Column of the Goths (the oldest surviving monument in the city) and reaches up to 1920 with the "new" Galata Bridge, unfolding 1,700 years of history with images of the Column of Constantine, the Aqueduct of Valens, the Basilica Cistern, the Monastery of St. John of Studius, Hagia Sophia, the Panagia Mouhliotissa, the Maiden's Tower, the Church of the Savior, the Palace of Bucoleon, the Monastery of Pantokrator, the Galata Tower, the Suleymaniye Mosque, the Spice Market, the Valide Han, the Fountain of Mehmet Emin Aga, Ortaköy, the Great School of the Nation, the Camondo Stairs, the Grand Rue de Péra, and more.

Copyright © 2025 Andreas Georgiadis