Κορμί ήρωα

000741 Nikos Yialouris, Body of Hero, 1991, mixed media on paper, 63.5 × 83.5 cm

Yialouris's engagement with the figure of the naked, mutilated hero-angel reached the level of obsession during the final period of his life. It rivaled in importance other recurring themes such as the landscape of Chios and seafaring vessels. Here, a mutilated, tormented human torso is depicted, half-reclining. It is severed at the waist, the legs missing below the knee, without arms or head; only fragments of the wings survive, painted in gold and dipped in the red of blood. To remain upright, wooden rods pierce through it, evoking not a human being but a hollow scarecrow. The artist works primarily with ink, applied with a reed pen onto the paper. Colour (red and gold) is used suggestively, to indicate the wounds or the glow of former glory (on the wings). The tragic, expressionist image draws its origins from European Modernism. At its core, however, stands the powerful iconographic archetype of the dying warrior, as inherited by the painter from ancient sculpture. After all, Yialouris was a cultivated creator, with the ability to boldly assimilate diverse influences and process them in his own style.