"Cycladic sculpture" - 5000 Years Young

Byron Comninos has long been fascinated with the marble of the Cycladic Islands of the Aegean. In this talk he explores the long relationship between artist and Cycladic forms.

When archaeologists uncovered artefacts from the Early Bronze Age settlements in the Greek Cycladic islands of the Aegean, the figurines were regarded as ugly – even grotesque.

Almost a century later in the early 20th Century these became “Cycladic Art” – a term used to this day in Greek museums. Their simplistic forms delight today’s viewer just as they inspired great artists of the last century including Henry Moore, Brancusi, Modigliani and perhaps Picasso.

These figurines made some five millenia ago largely carved out of marble with obsidian “chisels” had a purpose and followed a formula.

Then they were functional. Today they are high Art.

In this lunchtime talk Byron Comninos will discuss his own relationship with working the marble of the Aegean.