Ήρωας

001650 Nikos Yialouris, Hero, n.d., acrylic on cardboard, 70 × 25 cm

The strange warrior stands upright in an undefined space. His heavy shadow falls on the brown floor but does not extend into the dark, violet background. The man is composed of three wooden boxes, stacked one atop the other. The lowest encloses his legs, the middle his chest, and the uppermost and largest his head with a winged helmet. One hand rests on his waist, while the other holds a spear—like a guard. The figure is rendered with a bold, black outline. The planes are filled with solid, flat colours, giving the picture a striking clarity and brilliance. The way the soldier is depicted is not typical of Yialouris’s work. The layout of the surrounding planes, especially the pointed arch at the top of the image, again suggests that the artist may have been working on this subject for a monumental commission. In that case, works 001649 and 001650 should be understood as a pair. Overall, the anti-realistic work draws from metaphysical painting—especially the style of Giorgio de Chirico—while also playing with the idea of antiquity.