Description
Artist/Maker: Kostas Kampouropoulos (1939-2018)
Object/Materials and Techniques: Oil on canvas
Date: Painted between 2007-2016
Dimensions: H. 100 cm. x W. 70 cm.
Art style: Portraiture/Romantic elements with surrealistic expressionistic structures/Abstract art
Current Location: Private collection
Curator’s note: A fictional portrait of the iconic legendary British King Arthur (to some ‘Artorius‘). He is depicted aged and wise, yet pious and kind, encircled by a halo behind his crowned head signifying indirectly his hallucination by Merlin the Wizard -who engineered, in the Arthurian legend, the birth of King Arthur through magic and served as the King’s adviser and mentor to the knights-.
Since the majority of the artists’ paintings constitute an indirect reference to lyrical music, this painting, as well, refers to Henry Purcell’s semi-opera, in five acts, ‘King Arthur‘, the plot of which is based on the King’s defence battles against the Saxon invaders (in the late 5th and early 6th centuries) with the purpose of uniting Britain under one leading.
