Yiannis Moralis (1916-2009) Lot n° 77

Poésie signé en grec et daté ‘1965-67' (en bas à droite) acrylique sur toile 60 x 89cm (23 5/8 x 35 1/16in). signed in Greek and dated (lower right) acrylic on canvas £84000-130000 Provenance Acquired directly from the artist. This evocative painting of serene rhythm and graceful forms dictated by the classical sense for human scale is an inspired pictorial interpretation of poetry. In 1965, Moralis was asked by the Ikaros publishing house to envision images for its upcoming edition of complete works by Nobel laureate George Seferis. The poet was reluctant at first to embrace the idea: “To my mind the coupling of the arts has seldom been successful. It has always seemed to me something like two horses, harnessed to the same carriage, suddenly pulling in opposite directions. So I was most hesitant when I learnt that ‘Ikaros' has had the idea of asking Yannis Moralis to illustrate my poems. But when, some months later, Moralis showed me his paintings, I realized that sometimes there is no question of any carriage, but simply of two unfettered horses galloping independently in the same green meadow. I realized that his work was the result of a dialogue between an artist not ignorant of poetry, and a poet who is his elder by some half a generation. I looked upon his paintings as a response, situated on a different plane, that was more spontaneous, more fresh, than that normally produced by the literature around us.”1 In its purity of form, subtle use of colour, composed immobility, and serene atmosphere imbued with meditative silence and elegiac feeling, Moralis's painting echoes the timeless values of Greek art. By balancing lyrical sensitivity and ordered thought, eliminating the temporary, and elevating form to a symbol, the artist captures the aura of the classical not as a lifeless relic of ancient glory but as a continuum constantly reborn in the present. 1 As quoted in Yannis Moralis, Commercial Bank of Greece Group of Companies edition, Athens 1988, p. 451.