Wings of Desire
Text by Augusta Atla, 2025
Painting – and the act of painting – is not merely the gesture of the hands applying pigment. Painting is not solely the frame and the materials that physically constitute the work. Indeed, painting exists even before it takes form physically. Even if painting did not have a concept in itself before the Renaissance, the act of painting and creating images is prehistoric. However, there is one myth in the history of painting that I can never forget.
A Greek myth, written down by Pliny the Elder (23/24 – 79 BCE), recounts that when men went to war or on a long travel in antiquity, women traced the contours of their lovers’ shadow upon the wall – an act borne of longing, a means of preserving their beloved’s presence as a memory. These women did not know if they would ever see their husbands or lovers again. Thus, the idea – or the myth – emerged that painting was invented by women as a means of enduring grief, longing, separation, uncertainty, war, and unfulfilled love.
“She was in love with a youth, and when he was leaving the country, she traced the outline of the shadow which his face cast on the wall by lamplight.” – Pliny the Elder, from the Elder Pliny’s Chapters on the History of Art.
This myth constitutes an entire genre in the history of painting, exemplified by some of the most renowned works: The Origin of Painting (1786) by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Invention of the Art of Drawing (1791) by Joseph Benoît Suvée, and The Origin of Painting (The Maid of Corinth) (1775) by David Allan.
My works – even when they do not employ painting as a medium – emerge from this ‘space of painting’. A space of longing, love, separation and absence. Whether the beloved be my mother, my father, a man, a friend, a conversation, an unborn child, a light over the streets of Athens, or simply a memory I yearn for. My works are created from a constant state of longing, or perhaps be it a paradox: a longing to never long again?
As the Greek myth suggests the eroticism and eros that my works explore are not merely explicit as a subject or theme in certain pieces; rather, they refer, more crucially, to the burning existential longing in which everything – for the painter – is set ablaze.
To be an artist is to hold a room of one’s own sexuality. Indeed, it is only recently that we have begun to acknowledge that female artists, too, have had male muses, just as male artists have historically had female muses. The recognition of female sexuality in our visual culture and fine art as something psychological, creative and spiritual – rather than merely an object of male desire – is, perhaps surprising for some, also part of the broader development of politics in terms of strengthening artistic freedom, women’s free speech and equality.
Furthermore, when artists like me create works that engage with eroticism as both theme and motif, it is in order to examine that which remains vastly underrepresented in art history: the female gaze and visual representations of female sexuality. If I can map not only the subject of desire but, more crucially, the space of desire itself, then I do so. In other words, to paint is to wear the ‘wings of desire’.
WORKS
Europa
Oil and oil pastel on canvas (175 x 140 cm), 2025 (unique work). Augusta Atla
The painting is built up of four human figures: a man sitting down, a woman lying on a bed, and two figures in the background. Two women, two men. I have taken the myth of Apollo and Daphne and the myth of Europa and explored sexuality, voyeurism, geopolitics, power, sorrow, and sensuality in one work. Europe—soon just a Greek myth again? A continent isolated amidst enormous woodlands, rivers, and history. And yet, for me, the painterly methods of applying paint to the canvas and the gesture of the hands while painting are more than just ‘an image’. I see the painting more as a ‘membrane of energy’— the sensation of a good, old whisky, enjoyed while sitting on the bed next to a lover.
Sleeping Europa
Pastel and oil on canvas (120 x 155 cm), 2025 (unique work). Augusta Atla
A Greek myth, written down by Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 BCE), recounts that when men went to war or on a long journey in antiquity, women traced the contours of their lovers’ shadows upon the wall—an act borne of longing, a means of preserving their beloved’s presence as a memory. These women did not know if they would ever see their husbands or lovers again. Thus, the idea —or the myth—emerged that painting was invented by women. I have painted and drawn a new version of Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus and called her Sleeping Europa to suggest that Europa may soon be a shadow I paint on the wall, as she is leaving for war. I drew Venus on raw canvas and with pastel to evoke the idea whilst making it as if I were drawing a cave painting on a wall, in a serious devotion and as a ritual. To scratch the wall is like leaving a burn mark or holding on to something you love.
Wings of Desire
Photowork – a series of 14 works. Inkjet print. Edition of 3 + 1 AP. 2025. Augusta Atla
The invention and concept of painting arrived in the Renaissance with the development of the grid and perspective. Perspective and the use of the camera obscura became ways to construct the picture plane and portray the idea of ‘the situation’—meaning: “Here, in this place, this and this happened.” The idea of painting as evidence emerged. In this process, the invention of the voyeur was also created. The subject of the viewer—the act of ‘looking through the window’—was established.
And so, I placed myself within the invention of painting and, as a female artist, looked at myself as both viewer and subject within the symbol of the window—here, meaning the picture plane.
Using a method similar to Muybridge, I did not aim to study physical movement, as in his work, but instead to observe and study emotional movement. The series consists of 14 works, each capturing an emotional shift in the figure due to its composition. The figure is an emotional subject, and emotions can change from one second to the next—the total composition underscores this. The body can be like notes in a musical composition.
Wings of Desire (Munch’s Kiss as Daphne)
Drawing – ink and pencil on paper (21 x 29.5 cm). Unique work. 2025. Augusta Atla
*belongs to a private art collection
A remake of Edvard Munch’s work Kiss, in which I transform the kiss into the myth of ‘Apollo and Daphne’, where the woman transforms into a tree. The eroticism and Eros that my works explore are not merely explicit as a subject or theme in certain pieces; rather, they refer, more crucially, to the burning existential longing in which everything—for the painter—is set ablaze. The work is made in homage to a male muse of mine.
Wings of Desire (Om natten)
Drawing – pencil on paper (21 x 29.5 cm). Unique work. 2025. Augusta Atla
A self-portrait drawn from a photowork of mine. The work is also conceptual, as it arises from my self-portraits in the mediums of performance and photography. It also demonstrates how my method moves from photography and performance to drawing, watercolour, and painting. For me, to be an artist is to hold a space for one’s own sexuality. The work incorporates a sentence from my poetry, and by juxtaposing drawing, poetry, and self-portraiture, I underline that female sexuality is something psychological, fantastical, creative, and spiritual—rather than merely an object of male desire.