Takis: A Magnetic Sculptor Back in the Limelight

The White Cube gallery is devoting its first exhibition in France for ten years to the Greek artist, who died in 2019. A chance to rediscover a pioneering corpus at the intersection of science and metaphysics.

Duchamp dubbed him “the happy ploughman of magnetic fields”. It was an apt sobriquet for Panayótis Vassilákis, aka Takis, who not only broke down the boundaries between art and science, but also sought to reveal invisible forces he likened to the “fourth dimension”. His last exhibition in France was in 2015, when the Palais de Tokyo hosted a retrospective overseen by Alfred Pacquement, former director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne. The White Cube’s exhibition focuses on the sculptor’s relationship with Paris, and features 20-odd works conceived or created in the capital between 1950 and 1980. This is where Takis really established himself during these four decades, even if he also spent time in London and New York. But like many artists of his time, he was drawn to the dazzling City of Light. And “he aspired to a better life,” says Ikenna Malbert, Associate Director of Artist Relations at the White Cube Gallery. With good reason. Born in 1925 on the outskirts of Athens, the sixth of seven siblings, Takis spent his early years in poverty, in the context of the Nazi occupation and civil war. Against his parents’ wishes he took up art, teaching himself. His first works were plaster busts and wrought-iron silhouettes inspired by Cycladic art and Giacometti’s work, which he discovered through books. He arrived in Paris in January 1954, joined Brancusi‘s studio and soon became part of the avant-garde milieu, where he met Klein, Calder, Tinguely and Giacometti.

Signals and Telesculptures: Welcome to the Fourth Dimension!
It was during this period that he experienced “his two most important artistic epiphanies”, says Ikenna Malbert. In 1954, while waiting for a train at the station in Calais, he was fascinated by the signals and signs. This “iron jungle” illustrating the industrial world inspired him to create the “Signals” that accompanied him throughout his life. These works resembled rigid or flexible metal totems, topped with salvaged objects or flashing lights. Near Paris, on the esplanade of La Défense, around 50 of these have been swinging above a pond since the late 1980s. “His second ‘Eureka’ moment, to quote critic Alain Jouffroy, came in 1959, when Takis began experimenting with the powers of magnetism,” continues Ikenna Malbert. An “intuitive scientist”, as he described himself, he invented “telesculptures”, in which metal elements remain suspended through the power of magnets. In November 1960, at Iris Clert’s gallery, for a few moments he even levitated his friend the poet Sinclair Beiles, who was wearing a metal belt held in place by ceiling-mounted magnets. Takis was thus “the first to send a man into space”, six months before Yuri Gagarin’s flight! This led to the “magnetic walls”: paintings or panels on which metal elements floated, activated by magnets concealed on the back. He also introduced movement, making him one of the founders of kineticism, and developed “telelights” featuring large light bulbs, and “musical telesculptures”. In this case, electromagnets triggered strange random sounds, which he described as the “music of the universe”. “The cosmos was central to his explorations,” says Alfred Pacquement. One thing was certain: his pioneering approach intrigued a lot of people. In 1968, he was invited to lecture at the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Naturally, a string of international exhibitions followed, and it was in the middle of his retrospective at London’s Tate Modern that Takis died in August 2019 at the age of 93, like an artist taking his farewell bow on stage.

Takis: A Price Index to be Consolidated
Although he lived outside Greece, he was always very attached to it. In 1964, he built a studio and a summer home on Gerovouno Hll, some 15 km (9.3 miles) from Athens. This choice was no accident. Since antiquity, Gerovouno (Greek for “holy mountain”) had been said to contain minerals with magnetic powers, whose benefits Takis asserted he could feel. Over the years, he terraced the arid slope, planting pine, olive and fig trees, and adding other white concrete buildings. In 1986, with the support of Melina Mercouri, then Greek Minister of Culture, he transformed the site into a research center for Art and Science, better known today as the Takis Foundation. But it was only inaugurated in 1993, after the artist had decided to return to his homeland. “Currently, the foundation has one of the most comprehensive collections, ranging from his 1940s works to the most recent, and we’re always trying to add to it,” says Penelope Sideri, vice-president of the foundation’s board of directors. “Since 2018, it has been very active. Until then, visits were by appointment, because Takis lived and worked there. Now it is open to the public, and offers a very broad program.” Guided tours, lectures, recitals and performances are organized, as are artist residencies and events for institutions and patrons. “We intend to intensify projects and collaborations to honor the memory of this artist who thought so differently about sculpture and space, with the idea of passing on his legacy to future generations,” she adds. The peace and quiet of this hillside is all-pervasive. You can see the master’s studio, his library, the dining room for which he designed the furniture, and the living room with its piano. And everywhere, works of art enchant the eye or pique the curiosity. Here you find plaster idols, there weightless spheres, brightly colored telepaintings or a gigantic gong vibrating with an eerie sound. And from the park with its myriad wind-powered signals and mobiles, there is a spectacular view of the Hellenic capital and the Acropolis. Pursuing its development policy, the foundation entrusted White Cube with the sculptor’s estate in 2020. “The presentation of Takis’s work in its spaces, notably at solo shows in London and Hong Kong, has had a major impact on the market,” says Penelope Sideri. This assessment is corroborated by Artprice, though it only includes auction results: “Sales rose a lot after the artist’s death,” says Jean Minguet, head of the Economics department. Annual turnover figures, mainly recorded in France, have followed an upward curve even if they fluctuate. In 2022, sales totaled €1.7 M, with 86 lots sold (mainly sculptures). Since January 2024, sales have topped the million mark, with 65 transactions. “These results are still relatively low, given the artist’s reputation,” says Jean Minguet. “But his price index could rise.” A sale at Piasa on October 30, 2024, points in this direction. A four-meter-high (13+ ft) “Signal” from the 1980s fetched €253,000, beating the previous record of €187,000 set by a 1970 “Double Signal” at Christie’s Paris in December 2021. A new dimension undoubtedly awaits Takis’s work.

Worth Seeing
“Takis, The Void”, White Cube Paris, Paris 75008.
Until January 11, 2025
whitecube.com