21. 21AR Yiannis Moralis (Greek, 1916-2009) Printemps signé en grec et daté '64' (en bas à droite); signé et daté 'Yannis MORALIS/1963-65' (au revers) technique byzantine sur carton 36 x 89cm (14 3/16 x 35 1/16in). Peint en 1964. signed in Greek and dated (lower right); signed and dated (on the reverse) egg tempera on cardboard Provenance The artist's collection, Athens. D. Fotopoulos collection, Athens. Private collection, Athens Expositions Athens, Benaki Museum, I.Moralis, Angels, Music, Poetry, October 24 - November 30, 2001, no. 152 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, pp. 124-125). Athens, Benaki Museum, The World of Dionyssis Fotopoulos, December 21, 2005 - March 19, 2006, no. 620 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 334). Andros, Y. Moralis, Traces, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, June 29 - September 28, 2008, no. 16 (catalogued, p. 233, discussed by the artist, p. 66, and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 67). Athens, Benaki Museum, Yannis Moralis, September 20, 2018 - February 10, 2019. Athens, Benaki Museum, Weavings. Painting and Tapestry in Greece from 1960 to the Present, November 21, 2019 - February 16, 2020 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, pp. 66, 164). Littérature V. Fotopoulos ed., Yannis Moralis, Commercial Bank of Greece Group of Companies edition, Athens 1988, no. 145, p. 145 (illustrated). T. Spiteris Archive, Tellogleion Art Institute, Thessaloniki, c. 1980s, no. GR TITSpit f636_40, p. 5 (illustrated). C. Christou, Moralis, Adam editions, Athens 1993, no. 81 (illustrated). C. Christou, Greek Painting in the Twentieth Century, Association for the Dissemination of Beneficial Books edition, vol. 1, Athens 2000, p. 228 (mentioned). Y. Bolis, Yannis Moralis, K. Adam editions, Athens 2005, pp. 77-78 (discussed), p. 77 (illustrated). Y. Bolis, Yannis Moralis, Contemporary Greek Painters, Ta Nea editions, Athens 2007, pp. 62-64 (discussed), p. 62 (illustrated). Lexi magazine, no. 200, April-June 2009, p. 269 (illustrated). Discussing this work, Moralis noted: "It's the spring. It's this air one feels all around, which I experienced when going to the island of Aegina just before Easter, during Holy Week ... On the left is the church we'd go to, to listen to the twelve gospels, with the girl that stoops to kiss the bier of Christ."1 Printemps revives the archetypal universe of an Ionian frieze. The architectural motifs that echo fragments of an ancient Greek temple or a neoclassical Athenian mansion, the shallow compositional depth, reminiscent of sculptural relief, and the austerity of the horizontal and vertical lines set up a perfectly balanced geometric edifice from which the human form emerges. The symbolic figure of the young woman, the loving embrace of the couple at the far right, the angel on the upper part, and the luminous patches of blue indicative of the sea and the clear skies, compose a symphony of poetic images, a universe of classical rhythm and human scale. Magnificent in its simple grandeur, this striking work echoes the timeless values of ancient Greek art. 1 As quoted in Y. Moralis, Traces, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros 2008, p. 66.