Clytemnestra2.0020

Clytemnestra2.0020_Chryssa

Chryssa, known simply by her first name (Chryssa Vardea Mavromichali, b. 1933) was a pioneer in the electrified — and specifically neon illumination — art works.

Clytemnestra II is modeled on a version done one year earlier (1967) under the inspiration of Irene Pappas' performance in the stage role of Clytemnestra in Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis (reprised in 1977 Cacoyannis film, Iphigenia). Cacoyannis' film, as also Euripides' dramatic forebear, deals with issues war's exigencies and the subordination of family to national interests. This work of art, therefore, can trace its line of adaptation directly back to classical antecedents. Whether Euripides'/Cacoyannis' tragic mother, Clytemnestra, can be identified easily in this abstract art is a different matter altogether.

Another work related to the story of Iphigenia at Aulis is Chryssa's "Flock of Morning Birds from Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides," in the Hirschhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (1967) [IphigeniaAulis1.0176_Chryssa]