Interview

Introduction by Thalia Vrachopoulos

Despo Magoni likes to say that the tree of her life blossomed in Brooklyn but has its roots firmly in the old world. In her case the old world specifically refers to Greece. Informed by the power of mythology and archetypes Magoni moved to Brooklyn in 1968 and began to develop a stylistic voice rich with expressionist energy and violent confrontation. In her continual quest for artistic exploration Magoni has built a body of work that spans styles, strategies and subject matter but is united by considerations of the human condition, be it mundane and temporal or spiritual and cosmic. Often these explorations come in the form of thematic series. One of the earliest, People in the News, was a mixed-media intervention with pages from The New York Times that depicted human ciphers imposed upon actual news stories with altered headlines and was first exhibited at Nonson Gallery in 1978. Magoni has often predicted her social and political concerns with a feminist sensibility as can be seen In her series The Queen’s Moves in the Game of Chess which was exhibited in its entirety at the Brooklyn College Art Gallery in 1994 and then traveled to the Robeson Gallery at Rutgers University, and which expresses the fundamental role of women in a patriarchal society by the paradox of a chess game wherein the Queen is arguably the most powerful piece and yet does not wield the ultimate authority and is often used as a sacrificial pawn herself. In addition to panels depicting the besieged Queen defending herself in a series of hostile gambits this series is complemented by a suite of heads representing the (male) pawns suggesting that patriarchal and class authority ultimately represses us all. Cleopatra, Salome and Scheherazade have become other figures who in Magoni’s imaginings personify the theme of a woman who must employ all her gifts to survive in a male world. With Scheherazade, a woman who was also a creative artist, Magoni turned from oil painting back to her graphic roots and made one of her first artist’s books as well as a paper-paneled installation piece which has been exhibited in multiple venues. Recently Magoni’s art has taken a more spiritual approach as she has veered into abstract modes of expression with her Cosmos series and her Labyrinths. Magoni began exhibiting professionally since 1973 and has participated in 23 solo exhibitions as well as dozens of group shows. Her art has been presented in many venues both in the United States and abroad, including Greece, South Korea, England, France, Italy and Mexico. Magoni’s work can be found in numerous private and museum collections including the Centro de Arte Moderno in Guadalajara, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, S.C, the Kwangju Art Museum in South Korea and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete.

Thalia Vrachopoulos

Thalia Vrachopoulos holds a doctorate in the Philosophy of Art History from the City University of New York Graduate School. She has served as a curator for over one hundred national and international exhibitions accompanied by scholarly catalogues. Dr. Vrachopoulos is a full-time professor of the visual arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. She has written scholarly essays and reviews for NYArts Magazine, Visual Culture AD, Part, +-0 , Public Art, Art in Culture, Art in Asia and Sculpture and has been included in many international panels. Dr. Vrachopoulos recently co-authored a book on Hilla Rebay, the founder of the Guggenheim Museum, which was released in December 2005 by the Edwin Mellen Research Press. Dr. Vrachopoulos’ contributions have been recorded and have become a permanent part of the Yale Library collection of Accomplished Women in the Arts.

Reach her at tvrachopoulos@jjay.cuny.edu