Pericles Vyzantios,
1893 – 1972 (a.k.a Periklis Byzantios) (a,a.k.a,
Περικλής Βυζάντιος) definitely had a cool name.
But he does not seem to have a Wiki page. And unless there is yet another spelling of
his august name that I’m not familiar with I’m not finding much on line about
the great post-impressionist Greek painter.
This article featuring him as an ‘artist of the month’ has gotten me
started: http://www.leventisgallery.org/artists/id/15
Over the summer on our trip to Greece we visited the island
of Hydra where he had lived and worked.
In 1936 he formed the School of Fine Arts in Hydra, which helped to
anchor the island’s importance for modern Greek art. Up above the port among the picturesque stone
houses is the home of the Greek patriot, shipping magnate and war hero; Lazaros
Koundouriotis. It is a lovely yellow
building facing the sea, with period rooms preserved and, in the basement there
is a museum with a number of works by Pericles Vyzantios and his son Constantine,
which was also the name of Pericles' father.
Not finding much written on him was bothering me. When I entered his name in Greek spelling I
finally did find a Wiki page, which is helpful.
http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%BB%CE%AE%CF%82_%CE%92%CF%85%CE%B6%CE%AC%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82
It’s not always the case but this time
there is certainly more information on him, in Greek, translated in seconds to
reasonable English on this Wiki page than I could find anywhere else, easily
enough. I don’t usually search for fine
artists and you have to wade through pages of people trying to sell or auction
prints before you find anything like a biography.
Vyzantios was enlisted and served in the army as a painter
to memorialize scenes, some of which were lost in the retreat from the
advancing Turk armies. It appears he was
enlisted or commissioned by the army for much of his early life. Google Translate renders his work with the
army as that of a “martial artist” which is roughly accurate but casts him
aside Jackie Chan, rather than El Grecco.
Snickering aside being able to read all this cogently with a single
click is rather remarkable.
I thought to look up this man who lived a life of ochre dust
and azure brine, on that gorgeous island where he took primal yellow and primal
blue and 炉火纯青[1] because while we were there at the Lazaros
Koundouriotis Museum I purchased a simple painting to memorialize the trip from
the museum shop which had many of the father and son’s paintings reprinted and
available. The shop keeper was a young
man with a lame leg who very polite and as I recall patient with me and my daughters
as we needed to return after he’d rolled up the first print I’d gotten as a
present for my sister and prepare a second one for me. It took a while but we finally had it framed
around Christmas and it greets me every day now as I descend the stairs in the
morning. As expected it is a powerful
mnemonic to a day of eating octopus by the impossible blue sea, where my
daughters and I took a quick swim after descending from the museum. I need memories like that as we muddle
through this winter draught here in Beijing where it still hasn’t snowed.
Another briny island joint closer to home, where my man from
yesterday’s post, Booker Ervin, learned to play his tenor, is Okinawa. And democracy sure is clumsy because Abe’s
rightest agenda and the entire U.S. “pivot” to Asia is being held up by the
leftist mayor, Mr. Susumu Inamine, of
the small city, Nago were the U.S. island base was to have moved
to. Promised stimulus packages amounting
to US$8K per-person, were rejected.
People were hardened by the fact that their erstwhile anti U.S.-base
governor flip-flopped and, under pressure from Abe, suddenly supported the move
to the Sago base. Local residents
weren’t having it. Now bridges, and
requisite infrastructure, cannot be built without his support.
On the balance, I think the maintenance of U.S. power
projection in the region is a good thing.
The status quo has allowed for remarkable development in all the
relevant neighborhood countries, with the exception of North Korea. Withdrawal will invariably lead to an ugly
arms race and a less stable dynamic. The
status quo won’t last forever, but for now, it is the lesser of two evils to my
eye. But people in Nago don’t see it
that way. And they wouldn’t. They’ve had to bear the brunt of this since
the days when Booker Ervin was learning to play in the 1940s. Perhaps the Japanese people need a more
balanced debate on where, within the archipelago such a base should, if
necessary, be hosted. Why should the
Ryukus bear all the weight? China, which
once claimed suzerainty over the Ryukus in the days of the Qing Dynasty, are
certainly watching closely.
As mentioned, this screws up Abe’s agenda. In the days since kingmaker Ichiro Ozawa lead
the opposition DPJ on a charm offensive to China only to be thwarted after the
detention of a Chinese boat captain near the Diaoyu/Senakaku islands back in
2010, Japan has itself, pivoted firmly back to solidify relations with the
U.S. Most Japanese whom I speak with are
fairly apathetic as it concerns international relations. The only outspoken group ever seems to be the
rightists in front of their trucks with their banners and megaphones. But the people of Nago at least are a
population rather outspoken. It will
force Abe and America to make the case more persuasively. And perhaps push Abe to rethink shoving
rightest textbooks down the throats of local school boards. It would be interesting if Japan really did
finally have a spirited, national debate.
I don’t know what John Handy would have to say about all this. He has a big smile, which may be the best way
to navigate all this tension. The alto player who hails from Dallas, is blowing out with two
fiddles in accompaniment, while I write.
The set: “Projections” from
1968. I first learned about him and his
crazy complicated Indian time signatures, in a book about Indian music in West,
and it is lovely to reacquaint myself with the gentleman today. Sometimes the alto sax can seem just a bit
brighter, when you need it that way. Like
Booker Ervin he played on Mingus’ 1959 classic “Ah Um,” though I couldn’t say
if he’s ever been to Okinawa or to Hydra.
His music though, I’m sure, precedes him.
[1] lúhuǒchúnqīng: lit. the stove fire has turned bright green
(allusion to Daoist alchemy) (idiom) / fig. (of an art, a technique etc)
brought to the point of perfection
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