Eleni Vakalo, “The Xceron Show,” translated from Greek by Michael Eleftheriou, originally published as “Η έκθεση του Ξέρον,” in Τα Νέα, October 14, 1966

The acclaimed poet and influential art critic Eleni Vakalo was a regular contributor to art magazines and newspapers in Greece. She published widely on art history, theory and education, and was a passionate advocate of abstract and contemporary art. This chapter presents a review of a retrospective by the Greek-American artist Jean Xceron at the Athens National Gallery, organized in 1966 by the Greek Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum. Xceron is coming home at the ripe old age of 75. With his name writ large in contemporary American art history and with a carefully chosen series of works, which the Ministry of Education has undertaken to exhibit at the Zappeion Megaron. That has already been done by the major museums that hold his works and honor him as a long-standing pioneer of North American art, as the Guggenheim Museum is doing now by co-staging his show in Athens.