Yiannis Tsarouchis
Kalfayan Galleries
Athens, Greece
14 December 2007 - 19 January 2008

by Rea Cris

Yiannis Tsarouchis (1910-1989) was an influential Greek painter, combining Greek folkloric techniques, most notably the painting of icons, with the 'international' style of his time, especially that of the Impressionists. In the 1930s he participated in social and intellectual discussions about what it constituted to be 'Greek' and his work became a model of these Greek ideals mixed with the international art world.

Tsarouchis balances a solemnity and sensuality in his work, which renders it dreamlike and nostalgic. His attention to mundane or menial details is paramount to the atmosphere created within his canvases; a loose buckle, a fingered button, the exposed skin between socks and shorts.

Being a gay artist, many of his paintings portray young men and, more specifically, sailors. The paintings are not flamboyant celebrations of homosexuality, but rather present and protect the sensitivity and submissiveness of the male in an overtly masculine dominated society.   "Small Study for the Young David" (1976) is a cropped view of the male penis, hands resting on hips.   The penis is the basic physical and visible symbol of the male, yet at the same time vulnerable and exposed.   He represents stereotypes and simultaneously rebukes them.   His sailors have Mediterranean features of black hair and moustaches, their bodies are muscular yet composed of large loose brush strokes, which makes them swim and shimmer on the canvas. Their white sailor uniforms sit oddly on their bodies, ambiguous as to whether these are childish men or grown children.

www.kalfayangalleries.com

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