Stephen Antonakos

This lavish new monograph is the most comprehensive overview of Greek-born New York artist Stephen Antonakos (1926-2013) to date. Best known for his geometric spatial work with neon -- and one of the most prolific artists of his generation to come to prominance in the '60s -- Antonakos is here seen in the full range of his inventions, from the strictly formal to the spiritual. Throughout the book, his radical, unique use of neon for its own physical and affective qualities, not for images or words, is manifest. David Ebony's deeply felt essay explores the relationship of his work to the art of his time, as well as its cultural connections to historical antecedents and inspirations. Ebony considers Antonakos's work within the context of avant-garde artists from the Constructivist period to those who work with similarly experimental media or shared related visions of geometry's potential and significance. For the first time, readers have access to hundreds of full-color reproductions clearly organized into sequential sections, according to when Antonakos started each new genre -- from neon installations, panels, canvases, Chapels and many of his more than fifty-five architecturally scaled public works worldwide -- to his conceptual time-based Packages, Travel Collages, Artist's Books, Gold Works, drawings, and much more. Throughout, the central importance of the placement of forms and elements in relation to their sites is clear. The quality is especially evident in the book's final, graceful series of images of The Search, one of Antonakos's last major installations in Greece. The book's illlustrated chronology highlights the artist's professional and personal life through to the present, as does its extensive documentary material.