Yiannis Spyropoulos

Women on the Balcony II exemplifies the Fauve-inspired arbitrarily-used colours seen often in the earlier work of the artist. Divided by 'breathing' space and often distributed in vertical bands, the increasingly two-dimensional properties of the surface and the dynamic idiom created by broad, jumpy brushstrokes collectively define Spyropoulos' work of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The distinctive patches of rusty red seem like thumbtacks, pinning down the abstract planes in constant flow, pausing momentarily to be arranged into a moment of a tension-rich pictorial narrative.  

The vibrancy of the Greek landscape and its culture as seen through its population were paramount themes in the early works of Yiannis Spyropoulos. Illustrated in rich yet subdued tones,  '... a long involvement in the colour of Greece itself - glinting rock in bright sunlight, the chiaroscuro of walls on ancient churches, the solid depth of rich earth' (Charles Spencer, The Studio, 1962, London, vol. 164). A certain formality of design is married to emotive, frenetic brushstrokes and a restrained, earthy palette throughout the artist's oeuvre, whether in his earlier, representational work or his later mixed media abstractions.