On Friday, 11 October 2024 at 19.30, Sianti Gallery presented a group exhibition titled “Black Humor” – The Revolution of the Spirit. Curator of the exhibition is Hera Papapostolou, critic and historian of Art, who wishes to remind us that, as it has been scientifically proven, laughter as a cultural phenomenon is connected to various social and historical groups of people.

She herself discerns various types of humor: spontaneous humor, blunt humor, surrealistic humor, satire, parody, self-sarcasm, as well as black humor. In this last type of humor, the intended witticism or satire refers to negative events or situations, and is more vulnerable to rejection

The curator underlines in the catalogue of the exhibition: «As Otto Hahn once wrote, the History of the Arts does not usually include instances of humor. Only artists like Calder, Miro, Dubuffet or Tinguely have the boldness of introducing humor into the museums. The reason is quite simple: joy is not part of grand sentiments. Painters and sculptors leave this area to cartoonists and graphic designers, who are considered to be second-rate artists – and rightly so”.

Yet, is this true nowadays? The idea of humor itself is somewhat new. In its contemporary form, it makes its first appearance in England, in 1682. But, what does it really mean in our contemporary world? Does it connote a kind of sadness, which is being transformed into a bad or a good joke? Could it be the ultimate revolution of the spirit? It may be so. The only thing that we are certain of, is that it liberates and elevates us. “Freud once said it’s time we got familiar with many characteristics of humor. Humor is not liberating only from a spiritual or a comic point of view, it also includes something majestic and elevating, signs which cannot be retraced in these two classes of pleasure-seeking through intellectual activity […]”.

Contemporary Greek painters use the concept of humor in their works, but in which form? Is it an underlying kind of humor, a sort of didactic humor, sarcastic humor, a paradoxology or an irony? Is it the kind of humor that satires current events? And whom is it addressed to? Is it addressed the intellectual elite or just everybody? Does black humor even exist in Greek painting? Fourteen contemporary artists are here to tell us that it does, each of them using it in his/her own particular way, in order to produce unique works especially created for this exhibition.

Participating artists: Belivanaki Lila, Boviantsou Labrini, Foriadou Sofia, Georgiopoulou Vicki, Kavounis Giorgos, Kontouris Michalis, Lavdas Kostas, Misouras Tasos, Papadimitriou Vivi, Perros Vasilis, Pistonis Achileas, Siagris Panagiotis, Siskos Nikos, Theocharis Stamatis.