Yannis Moralis Greek, b. 1916

Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens
Private Collection, Athens

Yiannis Moralis occupies an important position in contemporary Greek art. Dating from his abstract period, the triptych Summer of 1968-69 is an important work which clearly marks the gradual transition in Moralis' oeuvre from Naturalism to abstract Geometrism.

The thread of continuity weaving through Moralis' oeuvre is his preoccupation with the human form, and notably the female form. As Dimitris Papastamos has pointed out, ''In his work, which is based on a homogenous style, the connecting link between one picture and another is the human body, the female body, depicted with an ample, well-rounded figure reflecting the physical type of his various models. This type, for which he always showed a penchant from boyhood on, is as much a hallmark of Moralis' work as the sailor (...) is to Tsarouchis, or the building labourer to Diamandopoulos. And even though it fades out to some extent after 1950, it was always present deep down in the artist's mind: the memory of woman's physical form remained with him forever, and his aesthetic and moral ideal is embodied in that type in all his work, right down to his latest pictures in the style of abstract Geometrism. (...) From the curvaceous lines of his nudes in the 1940s his attention gradually shifted to the limbs. Whereas the figures in his earlier works had given hardly a hint of mobility, from now on the movements flow from every joint (...). The power that is present in these bodies is no longer that of sensuality and eroticism but that of dynamic equilibrium and a feeling of life.'' (Commercial Bank of Greece ed., Yannis Moralis, Athens, 1988, p. 21).

It was in his canvases of the 1950s onwards that the power of form and sense of monumentality appeared in Moralis' paintings. During the period of abstraction (1950-70), and before he embarked on the full geometric abstraction of the human figure, Moralis already sought to depict a greater degree of gravity, plasticity and full-ness in his paintings. Towards the end of this period he progressively and increasingly reduced his compositions to their essentials, as evident in the present work.

While Moralis used a variety of techniques in his attempt to capture the essence of womanhood, he increasingly eliminated the body's material substance in his works, sometimes accentuating outlines and producing an effect of flatness, sometimes modelling three-dimensional figures in a more naturalistic manner. The present work is reminiscent of ancient Greek vase painting in its two-dimensionality, while at the same time being strikingly modern, and harks back to the linear composition of an antique procession, executed on marble, for the façades of the Hilton Hotel, Athens, which Moralis designed from 1958-62.