Κορμός ήρωα

001633 Nikos Yialouris, Hero's Torso, n.d., mixed media on cardboard, 70.5 × 45.5 cm

The torso of a young man dominates the entire pictorial surface. Although it is clearly a statue, the torso bears visible supports protruding from areas where limbs appear to have been severed (neck, arms, pelvis), while the red colour suggests an open, bleeding wound. The background, painted in broad strokes of pale golden hues, further accentuates the expressionistic, mutilated body, which has been painted with thick brushstrokes of black ink. The work likely belongs to the series titled ‟We Are the Statues”, a body of work Yialouris conceived as an allegory—drawing inspiration from the poetry of Giorgos Seferis—to compare the modern Greek to his ancestral past.