Lost Art – My Underground Heroes

How these art works came about and what they are about

The series of abstract art paintings and abstract art prints entitled Lost Art -  My Underground Heroes -  were inspired by a small group of extraordinary people who gave up the most important thing they had - their dreams and future of their youth - to fight for the freedom of Greece.  I had the privilege of being part of this group so I created these paintings in their honor.

The morning of April 21, 1967 my life as young artist, doing well with my art and having a lot of fun with my life, changed completely.  It was a horrifying experience waking up to the screeching noise of army tanks shaking my home at its foundation and making my paintings jump off the walls as if they wanted to run away.   A dictatorship had been installed that night and was in the process of destroying our lives.  I was forced to leave home and found myself wandering Europe, a fugitive without a country, in search of a place to regroup.  That's where I met the best of our species, the best humanity had to offer. These are my friends forever, Katina Bexi, Mitsos Bexis, Dionysis Karipidis, Antonis Diamantopoulos, Giorgos Hatzimihail, Kostas Drakopoulos. There were a few more that I new only by their code-name which I had to forget immediately and they knew me only with mine, Apostolis - Apostle.

It took a few years to organize the underground activities against the Junta, and when I returned to Greece to organize the underground and put the wheels in motion I met and worked with some extraordinary people, my best friends Haralabos Kouris, Dimitris Eleftheriadis, Lena Gritzalis, Manos Gritzalis,  and my old Friend Pablo Makris.  Whatever we did "shook" the dictatorship at its foundation.  As a result, the dictatorship fell four months after our group was forced to run to Europe through an escape route my wife Andrea organized for us with the help of Akis Tsohatzopoulos.  (The leadership of PAK, our organization -- had turned us in.) During these four months all of us shared the spotlight in the most wanted list of the dictatorship until the day democracy returned to its birthplace seven years after that horrific day -- April 21, 1967. 

I wanted to stay with my friends and help Greece rebuild but I could not be sure that the tanks and all they brought with them would not return or if Andreas Papandreou and the leadership of PAK will not try to kill me again.  So I decided to be my brother's keeper and return with my wife Andrea to the US.  I knew that if anyone were to ever try this again I was in place to reorganize and have everything ready for action faster then instant coffee. 

Almost 30 years later I am recalling my origins and trying to make sense of things that went this way and not the other.  Was it luck, coincidence or destiny?  All of my ancestors, with no exceptions, honored their friends, family and freedom and without hesitation gave their lives to defend and protect them.  My father lost one of his brothers and a small fleet of cargo ships during the second world war transporting resistance fighters.  It is in this fact that I realized my culture and history are very much in line with the principles of my ancestors.  Thinking about all these things and looking at maps and photos of Mani (my origin), it is clear to me what transformed me into the man I am today and what were the strongest influences in my life and in my art. 

So was it luck, coincidence or destiny?  Coincidence?  Nothing ever really is, but I had the luck to be at the wrong place at the right time, and with destiny right in my face I did what I had to do.

You are all always in my mind.

Gregory Christeas - Apostolis

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

2002. I had lost a large folder with some of my paintings 8 years ago.  In  it were some of the paintings and prints meant to be part of an art show I was going to have in Athens, Greece. Well, the show must go on -- and it did -- without them. Recently, I found a very dusty folder and unzipped it to see what was inside.  When I realized it was the same folder I had lost 8 years ago, I got so excited I started screaming out loud,  "My Lost Art"!  I Immediately renamed all the paintings Lost Art Collection 1,2,3... and Lost Art Prints.   The Lost Art Prints are available to charities for Free.  These prints are also for sale at the reduced cost of 80 euro each and the money will go to Greek Charities.