Αλληγορική σύνθεση

001189 Nikos Yialouris, Allegoric Composition, 1991, mixed media on cardboard, 66 × 84 cm

From 1970 onward, traces of Pop Art began to infiltrate Yialouris’s painting. These served as ironic references to the U.S.-backed Greek Junta (1967-1975) and, at the same time, offered a critique of the postwar society of irrational consumerism. In this painting—one of the few fully completed compositions from the 1990s by the artist—pop aesthetics and bright, flat colours are blended with motifs drawn from antiquity. At the center dominates the nude body of a half-reclining statue, inspired by the river god Ilissos as depicted on the west pediment of the Parthenon. Wooden poles support the severed limbs, while blue and gold rags cover the white marble body. Behind the statue, four heads (possibly copies of ancient sculptures) are painted in gold. They stand out against a band of pure red, which creates a sharp contrast with the rest of the composition. With a mild expressionist style and a visual approach closer to that of a poster, Yialouris may be suggesting—according to some researchers—that the modern Greek is capable of both the noble and the cheap. He also mocks our hollow relationship with antiquity, the ancient heroes, and the cultural grandeur of the past.