Brice Marden in Athens

As part of its “Divine Dialogues” series, the Museum of Cycladic Art (cycladic.gr) is showing a selection of pieces by American artist Brice Marden that are inspired by the metaphysics of ancient Greek heritage. Paintings, drawings and notebooks are positioned beside antiquities selected from the museum’s collection in an invitation to the viewer to ponder the artist’s visual vocabulary. The exhibition also includes three new pieces by Marden in marble, as well as a series of drawings inspired by the waves on the sea of the Saronic Gulf which are being shown for the first time. Throughout his career, Brice Marden has used workbooks to record ideas and images for future reference. These books travel with him and serve as a journal of his thoughts. Thus, when in 1974 he began to travel extensively in Greece and on the Greek island of Hydra, his workbooks reflect not only some early calligraphic concepts, but thoughts about how to translate the mountains, sea, and light of Greece into his own visual vocabulary.