Σαντορίνη

000009 Yannis Mitarakis, Santorini, 1958, oil on canvas, 62.5 × 75.5 cm

In the late 1950s, Mitarakis returned to the island of Santorini, where he had worked a few years earlier, creating a new series of landscapes. These works were presented in his solo exhibition at the “Zygos” gallery in 1957 and were warmly received by critics of the time, thanks to the abstract style the artist had adopted. The painting held by the Municipal Gallery was created in 1958, a year after the “Zygos” exhibition, yet it reflects the same spirit. On the back of the canvas, a sticker from an exhibition lists in English the title A Rock at Santorini along with the artist’s name—possibly indicating that the work was part of the Contemporary Greek Painting exhibition, which toured several cities in the United States between 1959 and 1960. In the painting, the vertical cliff of the caldera is depicted with a bird’s eye view. In the foreground, one can see the winding, stone stairways that lead from the port of Oia to the top. The rest of the landscape is painted in a completely schematic manner: large zones of pure colour, quick and nervous brushstrokes—a style that is both expressionistic and abstract—convey the dry landscape. Despite the unusual perspective, there is no depth; the artist is not concerned here with a realistic depiction of the island or issues like the “Greek” light. What is now being pursued is pure form, a re-interpretation of the land through expressionistic terms.