Gift of John Andrew MacMahon ’95
Lucas Samaras is a Greek immigrant artist who explored themes of Surrealism and Expressionism. During his time studying at Rutgers University and Columbia University, Samaras dove into his own self-investigation. He created many self portraits using pastels to create different textures, eventually moving into the use of found objects to create abstract self-depictions.
Samaras dove into self-investigation while he was in school, and themes of self-discovery and identity have driven his art since then. Entering a Surrealist domain, Samaras plays with the use of form and geometry, as well as displays an experimentation of color. In Hook and Ribbon, Samaras uses sharp black and white contrast to draw the viewer’s eyes across the composition. The colorful, dynamic shapes engage the viewer in a three-dimensional experience of the works, invoking a sense of sculptural form. The converging shapes and lines create great movement within the composition, while also retaining a sense of containment with the thick black border. This sort of confinement of expression alludes to bodily restrictions Samaras may feel within his own life. Samaras is able to blur the lines between art and the self through his work by creating art as an extension of his being.
– Caroline Sillars ’24