Special Information for the Artist
Pavlos (Dionysopoulos) was born in 1930 in Filiatra of Messinias and completed his studies on Fine Arts in Athens and Paris. In 1955 he returned to Greece and he worked for the theatre and advertising. He returned back to Paris after he had received a scholarship for three years from the Greek State. In Paris he came in touch with the work and became friends with team members of Nouveaux Realistes, a team which Pierre Restany had just created. Beyond his presence in the international art events, he also collaborated with important personalities of the international art scene such as Arman, Cesar, Christo, Otto Hahn, Leo Castelli, Sonnabend, Iolas, Tinguely, Rauschenberg, Oldenburg, and more. Having already experimented with the abilities of magazines’ paper, cut into strips, he discovered the posters in the Parisian subway, making theme his primary and magical material of his artistic expression. From 1963 that he exhibited an early work with affiches massicotees (posters that are cut with a machine into strips) at the Salon of Realites Nouvelles (the first solo exhibition of posters by Paul was followed in Gallerie J October 1964) until today, having developed a rich artistic activity in Europe and America, he presented his work in major museums and international galleries, suggesting his featured colourful world, and giving to the paper and to the badly printed posters, cut in massicot, and accumulated in expertly fabricated blocks or textured surfaces – according to Claude Riviere - "an excellent value of material and colour." From 1966, the cut strips of the paper poster, are folded, taking the view of everyday objects, flowers, delicacies, or clothing and clothing accessories, allowing Otto Hahn, on the occasion of his article on the Mec Art and the Parisian artistic movement to refer to Paul, describing him as "the most poetic and pioneering spirits" of his time. In 1968 Paul exhibited four pillars made of paper massicot in the gallery Ileana Sonnabend, in 1972, his first retrospective exhibition was presented at Kunstverein, in Hanover, while in November of the same year, as a guest along with James Rosenquist, Soto, PO Hultvedt and other artists, he presented "Forest", to the Festival of Paris at the Grand Palais. After that he collaborated with the galleries of Alexandros Iolas and Marzona in Bielefeld, with still lives and he made historical happenings in museums, where he used confetti as a symbol of celebration, designing to the walls invisible scenes, destined to be revealed when the confetti, which the viewers would have scattered, stuck on them (a similar happening took place in Athens in 2000, when Paul presented his work to the Omonia metro station) or outdoor areas, such as in August 1974 in the port of Hydra, where, while he was wearing a tailcoat and holding a shoeblack tin he offered to polish the shoes of the people passing by. In 1980 he represented Greece in the Venice Biennale. In 1985, inaugurating the institution of European Capitals of Culture in Athens, he presented an exhibition of the Flags of the Community at Pierides’ Museum. In 1991, the gallery Guy Pieters presented a solo exhibition of his works in the context of FIAC, receiving rave reviews, and in 1992, the city of Paris held a retrospective exhibition at the chapel of the Sorbonne entitled "30 years of paper." In 1996 he held the solo exhibition "In Another Reality", under bond 'voyages' in the Foundation P. and M. Kydonieos in Andros, while in 1997, the J.F. Kostopoulos Foundation organized the first retrospective exhibition in Greece, at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, as part of the Cultural Capital of Europe and the Factory School of Fine Arts. Since then, the creative and imaginative spirit of Paul does not stop to fascinate us, while some of his works are in international museums and important collections. The work «Still Life with Mushrooms» 1997, made with poster paper and wood, is a characteristic work of his.
Solo exhibitions:
1964: «T» Gallery, Paris
1966: Blue, Stockholm
1966: L'Enfante, Venice
1967: Fiscbach N.Y.
1968: Mickey, Amsterdam
1965: Thomas, Munich
1972: Grand Palais, Paris
1974: Iolas, Zoumboulakis etc.
