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Harry Klynn, being the son of the painter Nikos Triantafyllidis, was Harry Klynn, being the son of the painter Nikos Triantafyllidis, was raised in a world of colors. His relation to plastic arts is almost erotic. The greatest Greek painters are his personal friends and its only to them that Harry showed the pictures he made. “To me painting is relaxing” is what he usually says…
He has painted more than a hundred pictures. Some in the classic way and some on his computer. His very close friend, painter Giorgos Stathopoulos as well as other people close to him, have urged him in the past to exhibit his work so that the people could see this hidden side of his. Thus, on March 1998 he decided to present his first exposition at the “Ikastikos Kyklos” gallery under the general title “Kokkini Grammi” (Red Line)
Forty two exhibits, all made on a computer. The exposition met with a very warm welcome and many cities in Greece have requested to host this event, something which was unfortunately made impossible by his many engagements at the theatre.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE FOR THE EXPOSITION « RED LINE » AT IKASTIKOS KIKLOS GALLERY
Colours always bothered me, they tormented me. When I was little, I saw shadows and heard voices and hidden breaths coming out of them… It terrified me! Then, I used to take my father’ s brushes and mix them. It felt like I wanted to reconcile with them, to lay a ghost, but I never managed to. I find these shadows and voices and breaths still hunting me… God’s yellow, as I describe it in my books, and the blue, red and black… So I guess I would call this work and adult reconciliation attempt. It’s just that it came through a mouse and a computer! But yellow was still yellow and the breaths and voices are still there…
Harry Klynn
March 1998
DON’T MAKE WAR, MAKE PICTURES
by Manos Stefanidis
Curator at the National Gallery
Vasilis Triantafyllidis paints since 1958. In other words, he has completed 40 years of silent conjectural research. In the meantime he writes both poetry and prose. And taking into consideration the wide circulation and acceptance of his satiric work, I believe it would be hard to find an equivalent case in arts, apart maybe form Bhost. (“Harry klynn and the national consensus” by D. Dimitratos, ANTI magazine, issue 308, 17/1/1986, page 30).
Thus, Vasilis Triantafyllidis, following the example of Mentis Bostantzoglou, is reluctant in claiming a specific role or title, due to his multidimensional forms of expression. That is also his great sin. You see, in a land of predetermined roles and marked card decks, independence in expression and versatility, is severely punished.
One might think, a writer AND a painter? It doesn’t show… You see, people use their own personal misery as measure. Therefore, in a country where the mediocre rule and the ones pushed forward are the compromised and one-dimensional, it is fatal that those unyielding in their sensitivities and protective of their individuality would naturally be set aside. First thing’s first. Versatility must be crushed because it bothers those relaxed in their vigilance and settling for little. But art requires it all. Claims it all. All or nothing. And if there’s something it despises, that would be emotional misery. What’s right is right! In our country, praise is punishable.
And he who shares the artist’ s joy, or takes strength out of his work is guilty too. Fair is Fair. So, praise to Vassilis Triantafyllidis, this restless and tireless worker. Praise, in full conscience of all the consequences of the law and the disciplinary codes. All the professional organizations, and, most of all, the intellectuals by profession who naturally look with suspicion on this outsider. But Triantafyllidis, solemn by principle and anti – pompous by instinct , following his personal research paths, has reached to discover conjectural solutions of the greatest importance.
The artist paints these last years using as his tools a mouse and a computer screen. And it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that in this field, Triantafyllidis creates a new form of anti-academic, original illustration, using his own patents and formulas that surprise the connoisseurs, proclaiming his self as a “Theofilos of the electronic age”. And still, Triantafyllidis remains utterly artistic, strictly controlled and totally anti – populist as a painter, although his soul lies deep with the heart of the people. Even more, he chooses the most aggravating way to confront the populist hysteria of his time: Obscenity in underlining the petty bourgeois hypocrisy – when it comes to satiric prose – and experimental forms in plastic articulation when it comes to painting. Personally, I find a strong connections between these to activities. For instance, in the synthesis “Room with two paintings” or “A dialogue with a picture”, the humor in the title overruns the humor in the figure, and in the sense of a Brexonic laughter, it lifts the image’s content.
Triantafyllidis carries his visual product from the computer to canvas, keeping intact both the electronic data as well as the picture’s moral. Therefore, next to being “The Greek Nation’s Joker” (as K. Giorgousopoulos named him), Vasilis Triantafyllidis, the one we all lovingly call Harry Klynn, is undoubtedly a good painter. That’s a gravest fault. Such a successful satirist (actor, director, mime, singer, etc) to write poetry and paint pictures.
In Greece of the mediocre and the cowardly – we’ve stated that already- such a excellence maybe considered as an insult. An insult to the aesthetics of the cowards and the sterilized art of those deprived of the gift. But Harry Klynn is a prolific, charismatic, unclassified artist, who works beyond the adopted recipes, straight in the essence of expression. Most of all, a highly political creature, who comprehends art as a social and democratic duty. In his personal life, he appears rather melancholic – another resemblance to Bost – and reserved. His older paintings are sealed by the ravishing mood of aggressive colors. His new work is the product of technology, inspiration, experimentation… and pure stubbornness. And since he does not belong to schools and owes nothing to mentors, he has the privilege to undertake all kinds of extreme things and be successful in them.
Mr Vasilis Triantafyllidis.
My friend.
The man who paints so that he doesn’t make war.
Manos Stefanidis
March, 1998
WANDERING COLORS
Harry Klynn, you who revealed to us the world of costermongers… Potatoes for sale… Potatoes for sale… You who perceived the passing sounds, the sounds of the voices of the city with your mocking mood, now you reveal it to us with your brush too, whether it is your hands, a rag or the power of spontaneity that acts like it. Fimios, the ancient Greek bard, having seen Ulysses kill all of Penelope’s suitors, pleaded with him not to kill him as well saying “ I beg you Ulysses, I’m self taught”.
Any self taught artist is sacred and inspired and authentic. He does not imitate, he creates. Therefore, go on and paint Harry. Follow your way, the way of the peddlers.
Á. Fasianos
March 1998
MY FRIEND HARRY KLYNN
I knew Harry Klynn long before he became my friend. I was always impressed by his subversive yet strongly built manner of thought. His unique talent in communicating. His capability to unmask lost truths, everyday sounds, images and secret sides of ourselves. I was inspired by his admirable yet disciplined courage, which stemmed from his wide knowledge and his even greater learning. His undoubted and versatile talent. But most of all, I was and still am moved by his heartbreaking tenderness, which he cannot conceal, no matter how hard he tries. Behind his scorching comments lies a wounded sensitivity, a never ending agony for the common affairs, of the kind that you won’t notice unless you have lived close to him, as I have.
Harry Klynn is a genuine artist. A true revolutionary who has stirred, with his words, the social hypocrisy of his age. Later on he has impressed us with his writing skills. His complete poetic expression. And now he calls up on me to see him also as a fellow painter, because, for those of you who don’t know it, Harry klynn still paints as he always did. Whether he works with his brushes or on his computer, he talks and thinks with virtue and daring.
Harry Klynn has proved that whatever he gets tangled in, it has a significance. The significance embellished in man himself as a creature as well as a creator. That’s why his painting is simple but to the point, never depending on ornaments, or resorting to impressive tricks and easy solutions.
With the opportunity of his exhibition, I come to state publicly to my friend my love and appreciation for his great contribution in theatre, literature, and now painting. Painting which bears the maturity of a person who does not work to kill time but to express all the important things he has to say in another language. The language of colors, which you can find lying in abundance everywhere, from his everyday conversations to his satiric texts and his poems.
G. Stathopoulos
March, 1998
For more pictures visit the PHOTO GALLERY, where you can find more that 600 stills, out of the life and work of Harry Klynn.
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