Marilena Aravantinou: The first Greek scenographer at the National Library 2024-04-09 12:55:35

It marks a set of footprints that reveal an era that doesn’t exist. She is a historic presence, as she has been recorded as the first female scenographer in the post-war years. The reason for the archive of the painter and scenographer Marilena Aravantinou, which is presented in the exhibition entitled “Marilena Aravantinou (1927-2019) – Scenographer and Painter” on the fourth floor of the National Library of Greece and tells the decades of the artist’s artistic presence in a a male-dominated area of that time, where theater and cinema dominated the entertainment of the residents of Athens.

Paintings and scenery designs for theater and cinema

In the exhibition we find works of art, portraits and landscapes, drawings, models and photographs from her collaborations with artists such as Manos Katrakis, Elli Lampeti, Dimitris Horn, Lykourgos Kallergi, Lambro Konstandara, Anna Synodinou, Mary Aronis, but also with directors such as with Michalis Kakogianni, Alexis Solomos, Dimitris Myrat and other personalities who defined the artistic life of the country at that time. Spyros Moschonas and Konstantina Dakolia are co-curators of the exhibition.

Paintings and scenery designs for theater and cinema

“While Aravantinou’s first artistic steps were in painting, she is not known to the general public as a painter. Then, from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, he devoted himself to the art of scenography,” he describes to “ET.” the curator of the exhibition, Art Historian Spyros Moschonas and introduces us to the rich legacy of her works. Paintings from the 1940s to the 1990s, many of which are being shown to the public for the first time, as well as drawings, photographs and archival material from her theater and film work illuminate aspects of her artistic history art, but also unseen moments of Athens and its protagonists.

See Marilena Aravantinou’s archive

A portrait of Elli Lambeti, stage models such as for William’s Hamlet by the Lambeti-Pappa-Horn troupe (1954), drafts for the mural in the foyer of the Athens Theatre, as well as studies of sets from legendary cinema films such as “The Lover of the Shepherdess” (1955) by Dimi Dadiras, “A Hero with Slippers” (1958) by Alekos Sakellarios, “The Man on the Train” (1958) by Dinos Dimopoulos and “Crime in the Backstage (1960) by Dinos Katsouridis introduce Athens of that era. Aravantinou also had a rich and important body of work to show in international productions shot in Greece during the post-war period. Characteristic examples can be found in the films “It Happened in Athens” (1962) by Andrew Marton, “Ten Ten and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece” (1961) by Jean-Jacques Verne, “La Routede Corinthe” (1967) by Claude Chabrol but and for the TV movie Peter and Paul (1981) by Robert Day.

The exhibition marks Aravantino’s return to the spotlight, illuminating an urban environment through the arts of theater and cinema.

See Marilena Aravantinou’s archive

Shortly after the establishment of the dictatorial regime of April 21, Aravantinou decided to put aside scenography and return more systematically to painting. As a painter, she had made her appearance in 1949 at the first exhibition of the “Armos” group at Zappeio Megaro, the newest among exhibitors such as Gikas, Eggonopoulos, Moralis, Tsarouhis, Tetsis, Natalia Mela. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Spiritual and Artistic Center “Hora” in February 1975 and showed the marriage of her scenographic experience with her painting creation. Exhibitions in France and Athens followed. Her last series of works, exhibited again in “Hora” in 1992, had as its theme the landscape of Aegina and Athens. Aravantinou’s painting and scenography archive, which is currently in the exhibition, will be donated by a relative of hers to EBE and will be part of the public archive, with open access to scholars.

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