The display, entitled Between East and West, will
showcase 350 of the 4,000 works Tsarouchis bequeathed to the
Greek state. Now in the care of the Tsarouchis Foundation,
parts of this enormous collection can be seen in the Tsarouchis
Museum, at the late artist's home in the Athenian suburb of
Maroussi. This exhibition will offer a unique opportunity
to see his most important work in its entirety.
Tsarouchis: Between East and West
The oil paintings and gouaches exhibited will be arranged
thematically, tracing Tsarouchis' search for a Greek identity
between the polarities of East and West and exploring his
artistic influences from their respective visual traditions.
"Tsarouchis saw these two worlds - these two realities
- as multi- dimensional," says curator Anna Kafetsi.
"He saw them as open spheres, allowing for mutual exchange."
Colour Before Line
The exhibition is divided into two broad themes. Firstly,
Tsarouchis' subordination of line to colour.A key influence
in Tsarouchis' brief but prolific Modernist period (1936-40)
was the French artist Henri Matisse. This work, inspired by
a year spent in Paris in 1935, but always expressed in the
Greek idiom, is characterised by the use of vivid colours
and a two-dimensional view of space. Tsarouchis would later
remark that "although deep down I wanted to paint pictures
like Courbet, Ingres or Renoir, the paintings I did after
I came back to Greece resemble Matisse." Matisse's own
abandonment of the Western system of perspective and espousal
of Modernism was due to his fascination with the colours and
decorative patterns of the East.
Line Before Colour
The second major theme is Tsarouchis' later interest in
the subordination of colour to line, and the illusion of three
dimensions.The works of this period, mainly executed in the
1960's, are highly indebted to the art of the Renaissance.
They are subtly and carefully executed, and figurative in
their rendering. Here, Tsarouchis' fascination with the French
Realists such as Courbet also found expression.
Perhaps most importantly, this period is marked by Tsarouchis'
life-long search for the techniques of Hellenistic Art.
East & West
The fluctuating influences of East and West are both crucial
in understanding the work of Tsarouchis. Never simplistic or
dogmatic in his vision, his search for an identity between these
two polarities has been deeply influential on subsequent Greek
art.
Now is a timely moment to look back at the work of perhaps
the most important Greek artist of this century. In its emphasis
on the crossing of cultural and generational boundaries, Tsarouchis:
Between East and West will refocus attention
on a Greek artist who promises to remain high in our minds
into the future.
In a Fix
How would Tsarouchis feel about his work being exhibited
in a building that incarnates the ethos of architectural Modernism?
A movement he felt was ruthlessly eradicating the Neoclassical
architecture of the Athens he so loved. "Tsarouchis had
a contradictory personality, I think he would have loved the
irony of the situation," Dr. Kafetsi laughs.
