Ανάβατος

000883 Nikos Yialouris, Snow-capped Anavatos, 1997, linoleum cut, 50 × 71.5 cm

The linoleum series of the villages of Chios is one of the most important of Yialouris's overall artistic creation. Not for reasons of local history (although the engraver preserves an image of the island lost today), but purely on a visual level. With these engravings, Yialouris harnessed his timid drawing skills by working in a hard material, eschewing the conveniences offered by line as an expressive element and making white and black planes his main expressive medium. Anavatos is depicted here in a not so typical, recognizable “tourist” view. On the first level, in front of the white gaps that artificially create a stronger sense of the rocky landscape, prickly pears, weeds and dry trees grow. Among them, debris. And at the top of the composition (as the mountain settlement goes uphill), the dark blocks of the larger houses spread out. The game between white and black planes leads the engraver to an unrealistic style, accentuated by the cubist paradigm.

Bibliography: Manolis Vlachos, Nikos Yialouris. Drawings and Prints, Athens, 2010, ps 188-189