20. GERASSIMOS STERIS (1898-1987) Art & décoration

Description

20. GERASSIMOS STERIS (1898-1987) Morfes huile sur toile 72,5 x 60,2 cm. (28.5 × 23.7 in.) Peint c. 1928 Provenance Private collection, Paris and Athens. Exhibitions Athens, Benaki Museum, Steris, Works from the Koutoulakis Collection, May 23 - July 27, 2008, no. 67 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 182). Mythical allusions and enigmatic imagery lend a dream-like ambiance to the work of Steris. Drawing from the tradition of symbolism, cubism, art nouveau and de Chirico's luminous metaphysical ensembles, his canvases are immersed in a lyrical atmosphere of meditation and poetic nostalgia. Here, the reductive schematisation of form is typical of the painter's mature style. His figures, lost in the depths of thought, draw their origins from the idealistic tradition of ancient Greek sculpture. This feeling of trancelike immobility, introversion and timelessness, transports the viewer to a heroic past, an austere world of archetypal forms, into the cave of platonic ideas. Steris himself said that he would be happy if he could comprehend the ancient Greek vision, the paganism we see crystallised in the pediments of ancient temples.1 1 : See Macedonia newspaper, December 13, 1935.