Vaso Katraki (1914 – 1988) was a prominent Greek engraver, renowned for her unique visual language and bold reflection on human condition. In her art, the human body acquires a distinct symbolic, ideological and political quality, becoming a bearer of collective memory and trauma. Her monumental, elongated, rigid figures transcend mere representation and emerge in an archetypal manner, stripped of any descriptive details, incorporating elements of pre-classical art (Cycladic, Archaic and Geometric) coupled with modernism in a way that highlights their primitive corporeality.
Alia Tsagkari curator of the exhibition “Hurtful Bodies”, currently on view at Roma Gallery, discusses Vaso Katraki’s aesthetic approach with Greek News Agenda*. Alia Tsagkari is an art historian and curator based in Athens. She studied History and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina and completed her MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art.
What are the main themes in Vaso Katraki’s work and how did they evolve over time?
Her thematic development is strongly influenced by the historical, social and political events of the 20th century, highlighting the body, both human and animal, as a central iconographic and ideological element. From her early woodcuts of the Resistance and the Civil War period, where the wounded body functions as bearer of historical memory, to her later representations of the everyday life of ordinary people, Katraki ‘s body of work is imbued with collective and experiential references.
Her exile on the island of Gyaros, during the Military Junta, represents a turning point in her thematic path; the concept of the body shifts to a primordial, genderless and implicitly aggressive formal field. Bodies are now inscribed on the hard surface of the sandstone not as mere representations, but as embodiments of pain, loss and bodily memory. In her later work, the subject matter takes on an existential and universal dimension, where the figure, free of identifying elements, becomes a bearer of universal experiences.
However, despite its emotional resonance and historical recognition, Katraki’s work has been perceived mainly through its folkloric and political dimension, overshadowing its morphoplastic complexity and radical originality. This exhibition aims to overturn this restrictive perception, suggesting a new, morphoplastically and ideologically enriched approach of her work.
What were the main influences on the style and subject matter of her later work?
Her main influences originate from a complex dialogue between Greek antiquity, European modernism and her political and personal experiences. From a morphoplastic perspective, Katraki is influenced by pre-Classical Greek art, Cycladic figurative sculpture in particular, geometric black-figured ceramics and archaic sculpture, forms of strict austerity, vertical articulation and abstraction, which she reimagines in a contemporary political and existential context. At the same time, her work is influenced by European primitivism, but not as an exotic or fetishized perception of the “savage”, but as a critical re-appropriation of the primordial, aiming to deconstruct the civilized vs savage dichotomy. The experience of dictatorship and exile in Gyaros, during which she draws with a marker on naturally smoothed pebbles, also has a decisive influence.
What are the main characteristics of her art?
Her artistic approach represents a unique and recognizable visual language in the history of modern Greek art. Its main characteristics are the simplicity and austerity of the forms, which are often developed vertically, alluding to archetypal depictions of the human body. Moreover, the use of sandstone instead of the traditional materials of engraving is revolutionary.
Its surface -rough, porous and difficult to work on- dictates an almost sculptural engraving style, simplification of contours and intense linearity. The intensity of the engraving, the deep notch and the predominantly monochromatic color scale reinforce the dramatic and monumental character of her compositions. Katraki’s figures are not embellished; they are “body-bearers”: rigid and hurtful.
How does she approach human existence through her figures?
Vasso Katraki approaches human existence through her constant engagement with the body, not just the human body but also the animal body, which fundamentally embodies memory, experienced trauma and ideological beliefs. Her figures are engraved on the hard surface of the sandstone as suffering bodies: bearers of pain, deprivation, repression, but, at the same time, reminders of the endurance and strength of life.
Katraki does not seek idealistic representational accuracy. Removing any racial, gender or cultural identification, she transforms the body into an archetype that carries the trace of human and animal agony against pain and time. From this perspective, Katraki’s bodies, with their robust development, validate their very existence: they are present, corporeal, material, rugged. Moreover, the use of sandstone and its processing with the tools of sculpture is not just a technical choice, but an act of embodied engagement, where engraving becomes a corporeal process.
What is it that makes Katraki’s work so timeless and universal?
The emotional power of Katraki’s works comes from the material truth of her figures and her honest approach. The body, as a site of trauma and memory, is inscribed in matter in a way that transcends time and culture, embracing the universal existential experience. The simplicity, the power of matter and the absence of any embellishment, make her works timeless, primordial and universal, since they resonate with the naked truth of the human condition.
Why did you come up with the title “Hurtful Bodies”?
The title “Hurtful Bodies” was chosen because it accurately summarizes the thematic and morphoplastic essence in Vaso Katraki’s late work, where the body -human and animal- is not just a representational motif, but a bearer of trauma, memory and resistance. The word “hurtful” refers not only to the physical and mental pain that bodies can inflict, but also to the material rigidity and physical inscription of the creative act itself. The title therefore, reflects the dual character of Katraki’s work: as a trace of trauma and at the same time as a potential threat.
*Interview by Dora Trogadi
TAGS: ARTS
