Meeting Point 06: Heraklion Municipal Art Gallery

Vasso Katraki, The Loneliness of Antigone, 1977, relief engraving on stone, edition of 10/20, printed on white paper, 120 × 71 cm, Heraklion Municipal Art Gallery Collection

The artwork “The Loneliness of Antigone” by Vasso Katraki was created in 1977 and is a relief engraving on stone, printed in black ink on white paper. It is vertically oriented and approximately the height of a child. Its subject addresses loneliness, endurance, and inner resistance in the face of injustice, embodied in the heroic figure of Antigone.

At the centre of the composition stands an upright, slender human figure rendered in black and abstracted form. The body is markedly elongated, with distorted proportions that convey the impression of an emaciated and burdened presence. The stance is firm, as if frozen in time. The head is small in relation to the body and turned slightly to the left. The neck is especially long and thin, while the facial features are reduced to a minimum: only the eyes and the nose are discernible, while the mouth is absent, lending the figure a silent and introspective character. The limbs are long and thin, extending vertically and parallel to the torso. The body is rendered without clothing or detail. At the lower left, beside the figure at approximately knee height, appears an imperfectly formed sphere with a rough, eroded texture. It evokes a stone, a planet, or a low-hanging moon and appears incomplete, as if missing a fragment, intensifying the atmosphere of loneliness and melancholy in the composition.

The black colour of the figure is not uniform. The pores of the stone from which the printing plate is made are transferred onto the paper as small white voids, creating a strong sense of materiality and surface roughness. Beneath the composition appear the artist’s signature, the year, and the edition number, which are not rendered in relief on the postcard.The artwork belongs to Vasso Katraki’s mature period and was created after the end of the Greek military junta (1967–74) in Greece. Antigone is presented not only as the heroine of Sophocles but as a timeless allegory for the human stance towards power and injustice. Her loneliness becomes endurance and moral strength. The artwork carries a powerful political and social message, resonating with the post-dictatorship atmosphere in Greece and the broader struggle for justice and equality. Through the austerity of form and the intensity of silence, Katraki transforms the figure of Antigone into an enduring symbol of resistance and ethical steadfastness.

The creative description of the artwork “The Loneliness of Antigone” by Vasso Katraki is the result of co-creation by the participants in Meeting Point 06: Heraklion Municipal Art Gallery.

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