Sara without an H > this collection: Athena > Communicating > Receiving > Masking > Wanting > Forgetting > Defeating >> next collection: Pearly Queen  

Athena Sonnets

I wrote this set of sonnets on 20 March 2016, inspired by classic 1980s Athena posters. These poster images by Syd Brak prescribed the antidote to the scruffiness of the Punk era and produced the aesthetic for New Romanticism influencing the entire look of the decade. Red Stiletto and Cigarette Butt by Mal Watson is also iconic.

As well as being the poster company who designed the 80s, Athena was also:

an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece (…) Her major symbols include owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear.

belated big up

Early in my poetry writing I started listing my influences and references as Big Ups when I posted my work on Facebook, and I have reused much of that material for this website. This collection is the exception because I didn’t look anything up at the time.

Only now have I researched the artists who designed the Athena posters which were so familiar to me during my teenage years in the 80s, and because I’ve been in higher education for the past several years I couldn’t help but skim this 2019 academic article by Ursula-Helen Kassaveti. 

“Sharp Sybaritic” Retrofuturistic Deco Realism: Some Preliminary Notes on the 1980s Airbrush Art 

Of Mal Watson, Kassaveti says:

“Mal Watson, a British airbrush artist, produced a series of female portraits or “ladies,” such as Oriental Lady, Chic Lady, and Midnight Lady, which depicted various femmes fatales in different urban landscapes. Echoing Art Deco and Japonisme, those female portraits were clad in high 1930s fashion, drank cocktails, wore sexy heels, and had New York’s Chrysler building or the San Francisco bridge as backgrounds…”

Kassaveti had interviewed Syd Brak via email in 2011:

“…the story behind the release of Long Distance Kiss in print—one of the most iconic Athena posters created by Brak—was, in fact, a narrative of what was happening in the popular culture of the era. As Brak recalls: 

A company called Athena produced and sold art prints derived from famous artists like Monet, Degas etc. This was a limited market and they were in financial difficulties. They approached me to produce a series of posters, which would appeal to a wider market. I suspected that any expansion would come from a younger market so this took my interest back to the punk look. The task I set myself was to produce aspirational images for teenagers. I conceived emotional messages but using a punk approach to identify with the teenager. As I said I found the Punk look slightly dirty and unfinished. I, therefore, imagined the Punk look applied in a fashionable Milanese way. The result was the “Kiss” series of which “The Long Distance Kiss” became the world’s bestselling poster for two years running and revived the fortunes of Athena. The success of this look led to The New Romantics era.

Sara without an H > this collection: Athena > Communicating > Receiving > Masking > Wanting > Forgetting > Defeating >> next collection: Pearly Queen