Footnotes
Conveying an atmosphere of subversive humour, mischievousness and subtle irony, Steve Gianakos creates attractive images of female figures that seem to unfold recollected memories salvaged from previous decades. As perceptively noted by Edward Lucie-Smith, by suffusing his pin-up girls in a ‘period atmosphere’ Gianakos deliberately makes them convey a sense of detached sexuality. He mischievously ‘blinks his eye’ at the viewer, while scorning the age of innocence.1 Likewise, Robert Rosenblum, former Chief Curator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, notes that Steve Gianakos, one of his favourite artists, successfully combines soap-opera situations with images drawn from art history, such as Piet Mondrian’s colourful geometric abstractions. His paintings are a constant assault on family values and his images an evolution of Lichtenstein’s, who had been a great admirer of Gianakos’ work.2

1. See E. Lucie-Smith, Artoday, Phaidon Press, 1995.
2. See R. Rosenblum, ARTnews, September 2004.