Footnotes

Painted in 1977.

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Athens.

EXHIBITED:
Athens, Benaki Museum, Yiannis Tsarouchis, 18 December 2009 - 14 March 2010, no 372 (illustrated in the catalogue, p. 258).

LITERATURE:
Yannis Tsarouchis 1910-1989, Exhibition catalogue, Benaki Museum, Athens 2009, no. 372, p. 242 (illustrated).
E. Florou, Tsarouchis - Painting, (doctoral dissertation) vol. 1, Athens 1989, no. 960, p. 272.
E. Florou, Yannis Tsarouchis, his Painting and his Era, Nea Synora - A.A. Livanis editions, Athens 1989, no. 1141, p. 288.

Impelling the viewer to scratch beyond the veneer and seek the inner world of the young male sitter, the artist's signature subject celebrates the purely pictorial realisation of a symbol's everlasting value. Truthfulness of vision, honesty of representation and genuineness of character build up a solid edifice of pure form, an ideal world liberated from the fleeting moment. Painted in earthy colours highlighted by solid outlines and set against a glowing golden background, the youth with a sailor's cap -like those favoured by the artist himself- conveys a striking immediacy and resilient allure, echoing Fayum portraits, Byzantine icons or Renaissance portraits.

As noted by Athens National Gallery Director M. Lambraki-Plaka, "In Tsarouchis's work, the human figure managed to survive three sins: the primordial, the academic and the 'modern'. With the latter one I mean modern art's iconoclastic crusade, which never tired to demolish, distort or expel the human form. Tsarouchis did not give in to this negative aesthetic theory which preached the systematic rejection of the rules of Western tradition. He is one of the few painters who managed to cross the tempestuous 20th century by keeping intact the precious human figure."<sup>1

1</sup>. M. Lambraki-Plaka, Yannis Tsarouchis, the Icon and the Work [in Greek], Lexi magazine, no. 73, March-April 1988, p. 229. See also Osei Myra, Yannis Tsarouchis 1910-1989 [in Greek], Kastaniotis editions, Athens 1998, p. 452.