Ήρωες με στεφάνι

000615 Nikos Yialouris, Crowned Heroes – Angels, n.d., mixed media on paper, 50 × 46,5 cm

Yialouris’s late artistic production is marked by allegorical imagery and an expressionist style, with the mutilated, nude, youthful body as a recurring protagonist. Yialouris’s compositions—typically featuring one, two, or three figures—are created with ink and reed pen, with minimal use of acrylic colour (mainly red, blue, and gold), allowing the contrast of black and white to remain the dominant visual element. In the present composition, two angels are depicted. One stands semi-crouched in the foreground. His body is draped in a deep blue tunic, while his head, hands, and legs have been replaced with wooden supports; his golden wings hang broken and bloodied down his back. In front of him lies a laurel wreath, a symbol of victory. Behind him on the left stands another angelic figure, limbless and headless, upright like a wooden idol. The time is night, and the space is theatrical: a backdrop or stage set creates a dark background, in the middle of which a golden crescent moon is painted. Yialouris’s expressionist, agitated style uses a series of recurring symbols in his work (the nude body, the wreath, the moon, mutilation, religious and mythological iconography), yet this allegory refers not to the past but to the moral poverty of the present.