Providing a cultural and intellectual context to better understand one of the latest trends in art, Cultural Geometry underlines the persistence of geometric thought in today’s culture by exhibiting works from the Dakis Joannou Collection alongside ancient Greek and Cypriot pottery from the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Curated by Jeffrey Deitch, the show is hosted at the House of Cyprus and marks the first collaboration between the cultural institution of Cyprus in Athens and the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art.
Cultural Geometry and its international stature allow the works to be viewed with an awareness of the effect of globalization. Driven by an exploration of the survival and dissemination of traditions, surrounding topics are viewed in the cultural context of Athens, the birthplace of geometry and the core of Western Civilization. By displaying this new art in Athens instead of in the rarefied art worlds of cities like New York or Cologne, its cultural rather than formal focus is more sharply revealed. Studying modern Greece with the perceptual frame of the new art, one understands more about the survival and dissolution of cultural traditions in face of the relentless advance of the new global culture.
Understanding the transformation of geometric images in recent art to emblems of consumer desire and media culture leads to connections with Ancient Geometric Art. This juxtaposition does not operate on a visual level, but on a historical, social level where instead of applying a formal geometry to understand the new work, one must develop a sense of “cultural geometry.” Exploring the themes of this show even further is the installation design by artist Haim Steinbach, which draws from the formal aesthetic qualities of the new and ancient works on display, as well as the accompanying publication by Dan Friedman, which serves as both an exhibition catalogue and a visual essay.
