Despo Magoni

By Robert H. Browning in Alternative Museum Exhibition Catalogue, 1986

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Despo Magoni's paintings and drawings are impassioned statements on the human condition. An obsession with the human figure and, in particular, the expressive potential of the head, has dominated her work for many years. Her recent paintings treat her subject more sparingly than previously; gone are the elements of collage and most of the symbolism of her earlier work. Gone also are the multiple images; most of these new canvases consist of a single figure that fills almost the entire picture plane. Color is even more austere gone are the purples and touches of bright color that offset the monochrome in those earlier works. Throughout there is an acute feeling of claustrophobia, often accentuated by the use of a framing device boxing in the figure still further. This containment of the figure, along with the overall anguish of much of the imagery brings to mind the paintings of Francis Bacon, particularly those from the mid 50s to mid 60s.

Whereas much of Magoni's earlier work dealt fairly overtly with political themes her new work is more introspective. It is not that the previous paintings were less personal—her personal presence has always been essential to her work—either actual (as self portrait) or implied. The question of how an artist deals with his/her political feelings or the larger social issues of the day have become critical in the mid 80s. The long dominance of formal abstraction in the visual arts along with the contrived separation of politics from art by critics and educators alike since the 1940s has led to a paucity of politically committed artwork. While many artists have recently started to produce art with political content or a social message most is self indulgent and contrived and has no value as art and little as propaganda. It is difficult for static art forms such as painting and sculpture to compete with the immediacy of broadcast television and video on such subjects.

The most successful artists in delivering a political message have either dedicated themselves to the esthetics of political sloganeering, or have managed to personalize their statements on the human struggle. Magoni belongs to the latter category: while the dismembered bodies, bullet holes and other paraphernalia of violence are not as prevalent in these paintings, fear and anxiety are still the overriding emotions. One senses a distinct feeling of pessimism-almost of hopelessness. In Magoni's past work there were things one could take solace in-erotic fantasy, dreams of immortality and the strength to be gained from courage. In these paintings there is little relief from suffering. With the theme of the Knife Thrower and his Assistant Magoni conjures up not only the circus but also that of the torturer. It is a world in which the perpetrator and his victim are caught in an inextricable web. As with her previous work one is reminded of Greek tragedy. Even the Knife Thrower, a player who must surely be in supreme control of his part, is subject to forces outside himself—old age and the resulting loss of facility must come to us all. The Knife Thrower's dilemma is twofold-a moral one concerning the exercising of power over others and, secondly. the problem of his own mortality and, by extension, his infallibility. Poseidon's phobia is the Knife Thrower's nightmare.

These works, then, should be viewed both on a personal level and in the wider context of the world of power politics and the human suffering endured because of greed. Magoni gives us no answers—indeed she implies that there are no simple answers. The web we have constructed to define our world and maintain control over our lives has become intolerably complex. It breaks down when we least expect it and relentlessly entwines us in our own folly.