Yannis Moralis Greek, b. 1916

Like his teacher Constantinos Parthenis, Moralis was inspired by the art of Greek antiquity, re-inventing it, using a new idiom. However unlike Parthenis, whose work is characterized by soft and sweeping contours, Moralis preferred starkly geometric forms, reflecting his life-long interest in mosaic art which he studied as a student in Paris. The female figure became a favourite motif throughout his oeuvre.

Moralis's work from the late 1970s to the early 1980s is distinguished by a synthesis of colour, monumentality, complexity of design, solid compositional structure, geometric vocabulary of form and poetic, and curved lines.

The origins of Moralis's abstract works, of which Figure I  is a fine example, lie in the portraits he painted during the German occupation (1941-44), which were characterised by a restricted palette, an opposition of light and shadow, and a concern for the flattening of form and space. After 1970 Moralis produced works containing completely schematic presences. His preoccupation with compositional structure and colour relationships is paramount in Figure I, which has both a delicate formal balance between its white and black forms and a chromatic harmony overall.