Pantheon: after Kurt II

Andrew Christofides's practice is defined by a sustained engagement with the history and 'languages of abstraction' in western art [1]. When formulating a composition for his paintings, drawings and constructions, Christofides selects from a vocabulary of lines, forms and colours that are imbued with personal as well as cultural meaning.

Christofides's 'Pantheon: after Kurt II' 2008 was inspired by a 'black and white A4 copy of an arrangement of wood veneers' by Kurt Schranzer, a colleague and friend of the artist. Enthused by its 'sense of the monumental', Christofides commenced a preliminary watercolour and painting that conflated this monumentality with allusions to memory and place. Christofides has commented that: 'My mother had died in 2003 and during her illness and afterwards I had become, through her memories, increasingly interested in Cyprus. I was born there and had visited on many occasions over the years. What has always impressed me about Cyprus was its classical antiquity and the fact that is has been marked by great historic events over millennia' [2].

Art historian Dr Christopher Heathcote has acknowledged that from as far back as the early 1990s Christofides's works have demonstrated the 'poise of a classic temple' [3]. Indeed, this description could apply to 'Pantheon: after Kurt II' which evokes, in both imagery and title, the symmetry and presence, or 'sense of the monumental', that one associates with architecture and relics encountered throughout the Mediterranean.

1. Andrew Christofides, 'Studio Practice', andrewchristofides.com. Accessed 13 May 2016 <http://andrewchristofides.com/wp/?page_id=15>
2. Andrew Christofides, 'Statement regarding background to 'Pantheon: after Kurt II'', May 2016
3. Christopher Heathcote, Andrew Christofides: a survey 1982-2006, Wollongong City Gallery, 2006, p 10