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 Tsarouhis is one of the most
inspired exponents of this movement. A student of
K. Parthenis at the Athens School of Fine Arts,
he also studied with F. Kontoglou and D.
Pikionis, after which he goes to Paris in 1935,
and produces his first major works at the end of the
30’s. The influences of Pompey’s frescoes,
Fayoum or Byzantium, Theophilos and Karayozis,
Renaissance and also Baroque as well as Matisse of
Baroque work together within his art in a unique way, to
give us pictures with man at their center. Figures which
are sometimes realistic, sometimes idealized sometimes
effusively decorated, and always with the unique stamp
which makes the works of the great artists who have
something important to say, stand out from the rest.
These unique features are present in the three works
displayed in Municipal Art Gallery, Two Friends (1938),
Basketball Player (1949) and the Squadron Leader, created
in the period 1950-51. In all three, what strikes one
most is the active role played by the masses of color,
which prepare for the frontal treatment of the subject.
Together with this, the way in which shapes and forms are
set out on the canvas gives it an introverted dimension,
in which are described the features of the faces. These,
in accordance with the habit of the artist, are male
figures rendered with characteristic realism, as can be
seen mainly in the latter works. Here, the individual
features of the  figures are emphasized. The
design in based on masses of color, with linear strikes
to stress the outline. The resultant form confirms the
power of the artist to express his thoughts and his
ideological relationship with art itself, together with
the inborn feeling and understanding he has for his
native country. Tsarouhis does not reject anything out of
hand, but uses everything which moves him as part of his
work. |
