The painter with Nikos Nikolaou (1937) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
An artist who has had a definitive influence on the field of post-war art in Greece, both with his work in the visual arts and his teaching, he has achieved in painting the yoking of the classical and the modern.
Couple (1942) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts, in the workshops of Konstantinos Parthenis and Umvertos Argyros, and starting in 1933 took evening classes at Yannis Kefallinos’ engraving studio.
Two Girl Friends (1946) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
"Two Girl Friends" is one of the paintings inspired by the Fayum tradition as well as Renaissance portraiture and Derain's works in a similar vein. It unmistakably carries the classical spirit of Moralis' art. It also presupposes his lessons from Cubism in specific details.
Pregnant Woman (1948) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
The "Pregnant Woman" portrays the sculptor Buba Lymberaki, the second wife of the artist, carrying his son. She is seated in a setting without depth, defined by planes parallel to the painted surface. These are characteristic of classical art.
Funeral Composition (1958) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Funeral Compositions are inspired by Attic funerary stelae, with which they share certain characteristics.
Yannis Moralis (1916 - 2009) Funeral Composition, 1958
In this painting the frame is provided by pillars and our familiar half-open door,in front of which stands a nude female figure in a pose familiar from classical statuary, that is, with her legs crossed in contrapposto.The position of the arms is also well-known from antiquity.
Two other nude female figures are portrayed seated hand in hand.
Funerary Composition I (1958-1962) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
In Moralis' “Funeral Composition I” (1958-1963), women of a young age prevail, as they do throughout his work. A nude girl, dead or dying, is lying in Danae's pose, used by Renaissance artists, such as Tiziano.
The Table (1947) by Moralis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Though interested in a variety of thematic categories, such as landscape and still life, his creative work, both in its realistic and geometric stage, Moralis is first and foremost anthropocentric, with Eros and Thanatos its axes.
Texts: Marina Lampraki-Plaka, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, ex-Director, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Project leader: Efi Agathonikou, Head of Collections Department, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Images: Stavros Psiroukis & Thalia Kimpari, Photographic Studio, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Digital curation: Dr. Alexandros Teneketzis, Art Historian & Marina Tomazani, Art Historian, Curator, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
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