Mirror with Green 1964

Curator: Looking at Dimitris Mytaras’s "Mirror with Green," crafted in 1964 using acrylic paint, what immediately strikes you? Editor: It has a chaotic energy, a sort of raw, unfinished feeling. The clashing colours and frantic lines make me slightly uneasy. Curator: Exactly. Abstract Expressionism, especially during this period, became a canvas for anxieties and shifting identities post-war. The apparent chaos you sense isn't arbitrary. It reflects a fracturing of established norms, particularly within Greek society at that time. Editor: Interesting point. Thinking about Greek history during the '60s, was this mirroring some kind of socio-political instability, the transition, or pushback against tradition and military interventions perhaps? Curator: Absolutely. And think about the title: "Mirror." What does a mirror reflect? Our own image, but also the world around us. Mytaras’s use of abstraction distorts that reflection, forcing us to confront the complexities and uncomfortable truths often hidden beneath the surface. This work engages with existential questioning, influenced by figures like Sartre and Camus. Editor: The prominence of green, amidst blues and blacks, almost offers a contrasting flicker of hope or perhaps decay? Do you think it would connect with its audience? Curator: That's insightful. Green symbolizes life and renewal, but also, as you mentioned, can suggest stagnation and rot. Mytaras plays with that tension, mirroring the ambivalent feelings of a nation grappling with modernization and its own past. It does indeed speak directly to audiences, pushing the question how collective traumas are handled and reshaped through creative mediums. Editor: I still feel a lot of tension. But hearing you describe its history provides the perfect layer to analyze and reframe this creative expression. Curator: Indeed, its aesthetic choices represent deeper questions of identity and existence—its emotional intensity continues to challenge.