Georgios Bouzianis Greek, 1885-1959

Private Collection, Athens

Theofilou Nassos, Bouzianis The Fifth Season, Athens, 1979, p. 20, illustrated
Georges Mourelos, Bouzianis ou à la recherche de l'humain, editions Nefeli, 1985, no. 7, illustrated
Dimitris Papastamos, Painting 1930-40, Athens, 1981, p. 196, illustrated
Greek Painters, 20th Century, vol. 2,  Athens, 1988, p. 182, pl. 9, illustrated
Dimitris Deligiannis, Bouzianis, Athens, 1996, pp. 133 & 290, no. 172, illustrated
Kathimerini Newspaper, Georgios Bouzianis, The pioneer painter, Athens, 27 October 1996, p. 10, illustrated

Widely regarded as Greece’s leading expressionist painter, Bouzianis was deeply influenced by the avant-garde currents with which he came into contact while in Munich from 1907-1934. Whilst in Germany, Bouzianis became associated with the two groups of Expressionist painters Die Brücke – which counted among its members Kirchner, Schmitt-Rottluff, Pechstein and Nolde, and Der blaue Reiter, led by Kandinsky and Franz Marc. These painters explored the passage to a more spiritual existence and the expression of human feeling in the light of what they saw as an encroaching destructive industrial civilization.

Bouzianis believed that through painting he could express the innermost human feelings. In his work it is obvious that his own questioning led him away from faithful rendering of nature to depicting the agony of Man in his everyday inner struggle. In his early portraits, Bouzianis keeps the outward characteristics of a familiar and composed personality. Later on, the outer form of the human figure becomes secondary, giving way to expression of the artist’s soul through broken lines and swirling colours. The struggle for existence becomes obvious by compressed expressionistic means.  

With the deconstruction of line and contour, what remains in Bouzianis consequent paintings, such as the present work, is the idea: ‘Painting must not become image, it must spread like infinity.’ (Bouzianis, quoted in Yorgos Bousianis, ibid. exh.cat. 1985, p. 54).