A few drops of rain on a late autumn evening in Plaka at the foot of the Acropolis, and we sit with Apostol and his surreal bronze sculpture in his showroom, The Athens Gallery.
It is three months since our last ‘full summer’ visit and we hastened here to share an aperitif and listen to more of the dreams behind his works of art.
A repeating image of his bronze sculpture is the combination of crystal glass and bronze in sea creatures of all sizes.
A particular theme has a large fish with a family riding on its back. Inevitably, the fish is grand, transparent and often arched, able to travel the seas without boundaries. The miniature family - father, mother and child are ‘riding the waves’ on its back one behind the other.
In one design, the father is searching ahead holding the reins of the fish. His wife holds his waist and their child, holding onto his mother, is being drawn along in flight. Apostol’s dream of freedom in the seas, of a Mediterranean that touches many countries, but of peoples not countries.
So many of Apostol’s large works draw on a musical theme, always surrealistic, with a surprising accuracy in details. These are works for the true collector, they are works that continue to inspire, each time we visit, much more than bronze sculpture.
The grand ’melting’ cello – titled by Apostol as Nature’s Melody, stands near the front door of the gallery capturing all who dare to view it. It is a particular favourite and, secretly, I hope that it does not sell as, just like the grand Icarus standing on the upper landing, the great Balls of Fire Piano, and the Shostakovich concerto, it carries the magic of coming through the Looking Glass into Apostol’s world.
Apostol’s world is far away, in his studio where his hands do the talking and there are more dimensions of reality than in this showcase of surrealist bronze sculpture to the world, a necessary extension of reality to serve the gods of commerce.
Soon Apostol will retreat to his haven and, we trust, another dream will evolve through the back of the surrealist Looking Glass into the world that we occupy.
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