Footnotes
Painted in 1955.

Exhibited:
Athens, ADEL Gallery, 1955.
Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco, 1957.
Thessaloniki, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Retrospective exhibition, 1997.

Rome is an exceptional work of Kessanlis's early career. The deep-felt sense of the materiality of paint,1 the successful colour juxtapositions, the masterful handling of tone and chiaroscuro, the understanding of the succession of planes and the confident brushstroke - all herald the emergence of a new and highly original artistic personality. Included in the artist's first showing in Athens in 1955, it certainly was among the paintings that prompted positive critical reviews. "Several works by Kessanlis have convinced us that he will not only develop into a master draughtsman - this is certain - but he will also become a remarkable artist." 2

By thoroughly studying ancient techniques and delving into difficult colours, the young Kessanlis enriched his formal vocabulary and arrived at some advanced and complex expressive formulations, amply evident in his Rome (Roman Terrace) series. Art critic E. Vakalo aptly noted that his body of work showed in 1955 "represents a turn from the mainstream trend towards simplification to an artistic statement enriched with decorative elements and poetic details. Consciously and intensely, Kessanlis reintroduces colour not as an exclusively abstract aesthetic value but as the most important means for capturing the poetry of painting, a kind of poetry which is in turn not a theoretical and hermetic construct but an expression of the life around us." 3

1.See E. Mavromattis, Nikos, De-materilization and Process as Structure of the Image in his Work, Athens 1988, p. 9.
2. D.V., Epitheorisi Technis journal, no.2, February 1955, p. 156.
3. E. Vakalo, 'Exhibitions' [in Greek], Ta Nea daily, 4.5.1955.