59. 59* AR Yiannis Moralis (Greek, 1916-2009) La Romance daté '2001' et signé en grec (en bas à droite); signé, situé, daté 'Yiannis Moralis/Athènes/Grèce/2001' (au revers) huile sur toile 180 x 180cm (70 7/8 x 70 7/8in). Peint en 2001. dated and signed in Greek (lower right); signed, located and dated (on the reverse) oil on canvas Provenance Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens. Private collection, Zurich. Expositions Athens, Zoumboulakis Gallery, Moralis, March 1-30, 2002, no. 11 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue). Littérature Y. Bolis, Yannis Moralis, K. Adam editions, Athens 2005, p. 115 (illustrated). Y. Bolis, Yannis Moralis, Contemporary Greek Painters, Ta Nea editions, Athens 2007, p. 95 (illustrated). From the 1970s to the 21st century, Moralis had consistently adhered to the principles of geometric abstraction, exploring its mystical pathways and taking his place among its leading exponents.1 As noted by D. Papastamos, former Director of the National Gallery in Athens, "this, more advanced stage of his geometric abstraction is distinguished by dynamic rhythm and expressive movement. It seems to me that these are the artist's happy moments, depicted in a beautiful environment of luminous colour and irresistibly erotic humanity."2 Highlighted by the poetry and eroticism of the curved line, La Romance recapitulates the artist's long preoccupation not only with the suggestively rendered human form, but also with the musical resonance generated by the combination of varied types, shapes and colours. The stark juxtaposition of the fair-skinned female figure with the dark male form in the foreground—which ingeniously alludes to Attic black-figure vase painting—charges the composition with a vibrant rhythm and endows it with a classical sense of structure and balance. As Nobel laureate O. Elytis once said of Moralis's work, "the body of a young girl emerges with the dampness of the sea, like a magnified fragment of an ancient Greek vase or a miniature fresco from a bygone place of worship."3 By sacrificing all descriptive detail, rejecting the illusion of space, avoiding tonal gradations and emphasising only the essential structural elements, Moralis expresses what is permanent and universal. The tone is set by gently flowing curvilinear themes underscored by an austere compositional grid of verticals and horizontals and complemented by the expressive sensibility of his palette. The engaging forms of his figures seem to have a light of their own, the same eternal light of Byzantine art which does not come from a specific source but emanates from within.4 1 K. Koutsomallis, "The Painting of Yannis Moralis, a Tentative Approach" in Y. Moralis, Traces, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros 2008, p. 30. 2 D. Papastamos, "Yannis Moralis the Artist", in Yannis Moralis, Commercial Bank of Greece, Athens 1988, p. 26. 3 O. Elytis, preface to the Moralis exhibition catalogue, Iolas-Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens 1972. 4 See M. Chatzidakis, "Yiannis Moralis", Zygos magazine, no. 80, July 1962, p. 6.