Constantin Xenakis (; 28 December 1931 – 6 June 2020) was a Greek artist based in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. His work often includes written script, in particular the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

. symbols and codes of everyday life, traffic signs, alchemy, the zodiac, mathematical and chemical symbols, Egyptian hieroglyphics, letters from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, Phoenician and

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

Life

Xenakis was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, on 28 December 1931. He lived mainly in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

since 1955. In 1976–77 he collaborated with the composer

Jean-Yves Bosseur Jean-Yves Bosseur (born in Paris, 5 February 1947) is a French composer and writer. Bosseur studied composition with Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cologne Courses for New Music, from 1965 to 1968, at the ...

on the work ''Ornigrammes''. He was made a Chevalier de l'

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

in 1986. In 1996 he was awarded the Prix Delmas by the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

, at the recommendation of the French Academy of Fine Arts. The Constantin Xenakis Room in the Fameck community centre was opened in 1991. In 1998 he was given an "Award of Appreciation" at the 24th Olympiad by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. His work is held in the

National Gallery of Greece The National Gallery (, ''Ethniki Pinakothiki'') is an art museum located on Vasilissis Sofias avenue in the Pangrati district, Athens, Greece. It is devoted to Greek and European art from the 14th century to the 20th century. The newly renov ...

and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art. In May 2022 the contemporary art museum "Constantin Xenakis" was opened in Serres Greece. He died in Athens on 5 June 2020, aged 88.

Works

*1969: "EK-STASIS", spectacle with electrically kinetic sculptures by Constantin Xenakis, electronic music by Joanna Bruzdowicz, mime by Jaroszewics and Marceau. *1982: "La grande journée", co-production C.F.D.T.-Antenne 2, text J.P. Faye, music J.V. Bosseur, sets C. Xenakis, choreography Pomares *1985: Creation of relief and ceramic semiotic routes (670 m²) for the sewage pumping station of the town of Crosne, France. Architect Monique Labbe.

Selected solo exhibitions

*1969: "Espace a Reflexion", Xenakis, Gette, Sodertalje Konsthall, Sweden, One Man Show, Environment, Catalogue in Swedish, texts, Yona Friedman, Marcel Marceau, Eje Hogestatt, G. Xenakis. *1970: "Constantin Xenakis", Malmö Museum, Sweden, One Man Show, Environment-Action, Catalogue in Swedish and in French, text, C. Xenakis. *1971: "Studio fur Moderne Kunst", Goethe Institut, Athens, One Man Show, Environment-Action. *1971: "RA / Reflexion", Action, Studio fur Moderne Kunst, Goethe Institut, Athens, no. 1, Magazine-Catalogue in Greek, in French and in German, Redacteur en Chef, C. Xenakis, texts,

Yona Friedman Yona Friedman (5 June 1923 – 20 February 2020) was a Hungarian-born French architect, urban planner and designer. He was influential in the late 1950s and early 1960s, best known for his theory of "mobile architecture". In 2018, on his 95th bir ...

, Marcel Marceau, Heinz Ohff, Christos Joachimides. *1974: Galerija Studentskog Centra, Zagreb, One Man Show, Action. *1976: "Centre d' Art et Communication", Vaduz (Liechtenstein), One Man Show, Painting. *1978: Centre d' Art et Communication, Vaduz (Liechtenstein), One Man Show, Painting. *1981: "Constantin Xenakis : 15 Ans d'Art Sémiotique", Centre Culturel de Mont -Saint-Aignan (France), One Man Show, Environment, Painting, Catalogue, texts,

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (22 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning ...

, "L' homme est l' oeuvre", Bernard Heidsieck, " C. Xenakis, ou notre infirmier-benedictin". *1983: "Constantin Xenakis: Itineraire d' un Peintre", Galerie Municipale, Ville de Vitry-sur-Seine (France), One Man Show, Environment, Painting, Objects, Catalogue, texts,

, "L' homme est l' oeuvre", Raoul-Jean Moulin, " Xenakis et le brouillage des codes ", Gerard Xuriguera, "C. Xenakis ", preface, Jean Collet, " C. Xenakis ". *1985: "Constantin Xenakis", Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, One Man Show, Painting, Photography, Catalogue in Korean and in French, Texts, Kyung-Sung Lee, Constantin Xenakis. *1985: "Constantin Xenakis", Institut Franco-Japonais, Tokyo, One Man Show, Painting, Photography, Catalogue in Japanese and in French, Text, Constantin Xenakis. *1985: "Constantin Xenakis", Musee d' Art Moderne de la ville de Taipei, One Man Show, Painting, Photography, Catalogue in Chinese and in French, Text, Martha Su Fu, Constantin Xenakis, M. Deverge. *1991: "7e Festival du Film Arabe de Fameck. Inauguration de l' Espace" C. Xenakis, Centre Social, Fameck, (France), One Man Show, Painting, Photography, Catalogue, texts, Gino Ceppetelli, Constantin Xenakis. *1996: "Constantin Xenakis, Retrospective 1958-1996 : The return of the artist", Musee des Beaux Arts, Alexandria, Egypt, One Man Show, Painting, Objects, Catalogue in Greek, Arabian and French, Texts, Chrysantos Christou, "Constantin Xenakis", Marcel Marceau,

, " L' homme est l' oeuvre ", Michel Butor, " Dans la nouvelle bibliothèque d' Alexandrie pour C. Xenakis ", Jean-Clarence Lambert, " Le scribe ", F. Arrabal, preface, Adamantios Pepelassis, Edition, Foundation for Hellenic Culture. *1997: "Constantin Xenakis, Retrospective 1958-1996 : The return of the artist", Hanager Arts Center, Cairo, Egypt, One Man Show, Painting, Objects. *1997: ''Le Livre de la Vie, Chapitre B: Alexandre le Grand et Moi, de Constantin Xenakis (The Book of Life, Chapter 2 : Alexander the Great and me, by Constantin Xenakis)'', Alatza Imaret, Thessaloniki, One Man Show, Installation-Environment, Catalogue in Greek and in French, Texts Thalia Stefanidou, "Septembre 1997", Constantin Xenakis, "Le livre de la vie", Jean Pierre Faye, " Livre de vie C. Xenakis ", Miche Butor, " Chant des Ptolemees pour C. Xenakis ", Edition part of the programme of events for " Thessaloniki Cultural Capital of Europe 1997 ". *1998: "9e Festival du Film Arabe de Fameck", Cite Sociale de Fameck, (France), One Man Show, Painting, Painting. *2003: "Constantin Xenakis. Le livre de la vie Ch. C. Les trois KKK", Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece *2003: "Constantin Xenakis. Works 1980-2001", State Museum of Contemporary Art, Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki, Greece *2005: Lola Nikolaou Art Gallery in Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece *2005: "Constantin Xenakis, Parcours d’un peintre 1966-2004", Centre Noroit Arras, France. *2005: "Constantin Xenakis", Fundació Jaume II el Just. Reial Monastir de Santa Maria de la Valldigna, generalitat Valenciana conselleria de Cultura, Spain. *2006: "Le code de la Route" Museum of Modern Greek Art, Rhodes, Greece. *2006: "Structures & Codes" Herakleidon Museum, Athens.

References

External links

Contemporary Art Museum "Constantin Xenakis" Serres Greece

Constantin Xenakis Official Site

Greek Museum of Contemporary Art

Artists.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xenakis, Constantin 1931 births 2020 deaths Egyptian contemporary artists Modern painters Modern sculptors 20th-century Greek sculptors 20th-century Greek male artists Greek painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters 21st-century French painters 21st-century French male artists 20th-century French sculptors French male sculptors French contemporary artists Artists from Cairo

Life

Works

Selected solo exhibitions

See also

References

External links