The Interstellar Icons

The screen-slabs, the monument-slabs and the facade-slabs which demarcate space without acting as obstacles to it, are initially the constituents of a dwelling which looks just like any other. They are an integral part of the intelligence of the figure, whose abode is this third dwelling place. They allow him to move freely through this inner space, and to apprehend the appearance of an outer dimension; an artificial image, a landscape which is not the representation of a "reality", as seen by the painter, but rather the faithful depiction of all that the subject's sensibility will have registered and his intellect retained of the various upheavals this century has known.

Events in which appear and survey, at times, the "Interstellar Icons"(UFO-Slabs).

Yatridès (Detail)
Adolescent and Child, 100x81 cm
Private Collection France
1963

(See "integral reproduction")

This HIDDEN REALITY shows itself first in the form of a simple acknowledgement, simple, in that, recourse to the fantastic is not necessary to a pictorial expression that has no need to make a spectacle of itself. The painting offers the incalculable advantage over the film in that it allows itself to be studied at leisure, rather than having to be absorbed within the limited duration of a narrative. ROUSSEAU, and later GOETHE have taught us that contemplation allows the art lover to let himself become actively involved in the object he contemplates, to step freely inside the painting whenever he wishes and however he is able to do so. In a painting, all the pages of the "book" can be read, simultaneously and instantaneously.

Thus, to look at one of YATRIDES ' canvases, under these conditions, is to place oneself beyond the pull of the fantastic, it means entering after him into the third abode. Let us insist on the fact that there is nothing of the mystical in this contemplation which in no way promises access to the blissful communion! At best it makes it possible for our sensibility to contemplate our own intelligence.

Yatridès
The Center or Time Revealed, 60x73 cm
Private collection
1962

Only with hindsight does it become possible to understand certain events that formerly had been deemed, not incomprehensible, but insignificant. It is the case with the realization of the painting entitled 'The Centre or Time Revealed' (Le Centre ou le Temps Révélé). This canvas had been completed in 1962, when his paintings were already peopled with figures resembling Georges YATRIDES, YATRIDES at different ages in his life, launched in pursuit of enigmatic slabs, seemingly akin to UFO's.

This work brings together an assortment of the most disparate objects, which are abandoned one after the other: a rowing boat, a camera, an easel, a car. What idea could have governed the conception of this painting, what identity can we ascribe to the mysterious figure? (clearly that of Yatridès, who had just left the pictorial space represented).

"All one could say is that he has taken a photo, been out to sea, done some painting and disappeared, abandoning his car and his boat"

The photo was not the right one, the canvas on the easel was turned round and retained its mystery. The boat, a religious symbol, and the car, a sign of modern times, were no longer of any use :

YATRIDES freeing himself from the paralysis imposed upon him by figurative representation, has physically removed himself from the painting in "quest of the Centre from which Time was springing forth" (See YATRIDES, The Third Abode).

This is a confession, a personal testimony that the painter has expressed in purely pictorial terms. It is all the more awkward for him to speak of it in words. Just as it is to admit that he finds it very painful to put himself back into his own paintings in the shape of objective figures. The subjectivity of figurative art form had given way to the objective depiction of a hidden reality and the suggestion of the questions it thereby raised.

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Anticipation of the YATRIDES' slabs-monoliths from 1957, driving force and argument
of "2001 : a space odyssée" (1968). YATRIDES' indeniable paternity appears
in many of his works: some of them are exhibited on Yatrides-Kubrick.

Extracts from following documents and works :
Official Authorities : "Administrative biography"

Arthur Conte : "Yatridès master of time" SGL 04.03.1991
Sacha Bourmeyster : "Yatridès and his century" , "Yatridès the painter of the invisible reality" ,
"Yatridès, l'anti-Picasso" SGL 24.03.1994, "The Interstellars Icons" SGL 31.03.1994,
"Yatridès and the Bible" SGL 30.10.96
Monographic catalogues 1954-1993 : Exhibitions and Retrospectives YATRIDES
Monographic catalogues : "International Biennials art festivals" Canada-France from 1987 to 1993
(Great Master guest of honour -Grand Maître invité d'honneur)
Events, Schools of painting 1900-1959, 1910-1960, 1910-1965 : USA Events achievment held with works,
of which Yatridès ' paintings, lent by US important prominent Private Collections of the United States
(See in this website "His work" and in "His life" : "Bibliography")
Films, Videos, University theses : YATRIDES ' work has fascinated film-makers, movie-directors, semiologists,
among the best of our time.
See "His life" : "Entourage" in which appear "Jean DELANNOY", "Marcel CARNE" famed movie-Directors,
film-Makers, and in "His work" : "YATRIDES - KUBRICK".