Yannis Moralis

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 had studied in Paris. The female figure became a favourite motif throughout his oeuvre.

The origins of Moralis's abstract works, of which the present work 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 the present work which has both a delicate formal balance between its brown and yellow forms and a chromatic harmony overall.