52. 52AR Yiannis Tsarouchis (Greek, 1910-1989) Garçon couché signé en grec et daté '54' (en bas à droite) huile sur toile 20.5 x 34cm (8 1/16 x 13 3/8in). Peint en 1954. signed in Greek and dated (lower right) oil on canvas Provenance Iolas Gallery, New York. Private collection, Athens. Expositions Athens, Zoumboulakis Gallery, May 1972. Nicosia, KEMA Hall, 16 Contemporary Greek Artists, December 18-27, 1986. Tsarouchis's pursuit of realist clarity and truthfulness of vision is described by the words of poet Andreas Embeirikos: "Truth in the work of Tsarouchis is distilled and explosive like thunder, uninfluenced by any sort of dogmatism, either that of a school or of an accepted morality or aesthetic. This fundamental independence is so apparent that even his most 'clothed' images always appear to be utterly 'nude'.1 In his Reflections,Tsarouchis mentions the writings of archaeologist C. Tsountas who referred to the ideal nudity of ancient Greek sculpture and specifically to that of the 'regiment' of the two Tyrannicides who are stark naked, even though no citizen was in the nude during the Panathenaic Games."2 As argued by D. Kapetanakis, Tsarouchis found the truth of Modern Greece in the bodily forms of Greek youth. In contrast to other cultures, such as the French, which are woman-centred, Greece, both ancient and modern, is mainly expressed through masculine types.3 In the same vein, Nobel laureate O. Elytis noted that "Tsarouchis restored the human body in a land whose age-old civilisation has always been man-centred. Thanks to his paintings, the figures of Hermes, Narcissus, St. Georgios and St. Dimitrios started to live and breathe again and circulate among us."4 For both Kapetanakis and Elytis, Tsarouchis's male figures are invested with a symbolic value that carries on the humanistic ideal of Ancient Greece, while at the same time expressing the spirit and reality of Modern Greece.5 Here, the shallow compositional structure coupled with a stage designer's perception of space, which played a pivotal role throughout Tsarouchis's career, build up an edifice of pure forms, an everlasting world liberated from the fleeting moment, imaginatively transforming the reclining youth into a protagonist of a Modern Greek narrative. A towering figure of 20th century Greek art Yannis Tsarouchis was also an intellectual who courageously faced ideological challenges and biased ethical practices in Greek society of his time that included homophobia. It was only in the last years of his life that studies addressed homosexuality in his painting. And it wasn't until the turn of the century that scholars6 could write unequivocally about the homoeroticism in his work and highlight its determinative role in the artist's evolution.7 1 A. Embeirikos, "The Triumph of Sensuous Painting" [in Greek], Zygos magazine, no. 72-75, November 1961 - February 1962, p. 11. See also "Yannis Tsarouchis", Greek Heritage quarterly, vol. 1, no. 2, Spring 1964, p. 92. 2 Y. Tsarouchis, "Some Reflections on my Works" in The Greek Painters, vol. II, 20th Century, Melissa editions, Athens 1975, p. 299. 3 D. Kapetanakis, "Yannis Tsarouchis, Return to Roots" [in Greek], Nea Grammata magazine, 1937 as reprinted in Tsarouchis [in Greek], Zygos, Athens 1978, p 6. 4 O. Elytis, preface to the Yannis Tsarouchis: Fifteen Works and One Original Print 1938-1963 album [in Greek], 1964. 5 See E. Florou, Tsarouchis - Painting, [in Greek] (doctoral dissertation) vol. 1, Athens 1989, p. 118. 6 N. Hadjinikolaou, "Yannis Tsarouchis" [in Greek], in Figures of the Twentieth Century, Ta Nea - Livanis editions, Athens 2000, pp. 517-518. 7. See E.D. Matthiopoulos, "In Search of Divine Lightning" in N. Gripari and A. Szymczyk ed., Yannis Tsarouchis, Dancing in Real Life, exhibition catalogue, Wrightwood 659, Chicago 2021, pp. 251-267.