“Every exhibition about Moralis is a beautiful exhibition,” Giorgis Magginis, scientific director of the Benaki Museum, commented before the opening of the Private Space exhibition. He spoke of the “harmony, balanced counterpoint and beauty” that characterize the work of Moralis, one of the leading Greek artists of the last century and one of the most popular.

And this is a truly beautiful exhibition, respecting the principles of this multifaceted artist – painter, sculptor, engraver, stage designer – who had a decisive influence on the landscape of post-war Greek art. But it has another advantage: it emphasizes the personality of the creator by turning the lens on the private side of his life.

Workshop of Deinocrates

Entering the heart of the museum, metaphorically and literally, is the workshop of Moralis, a small “room” inspired by the atelier on Deinocratus Street. This element, which the exhibition designer Spyros Nasainas has sensitively placed at the center of the visitor’s journey, plays a dual role. On the one hand, he somewhat dreamily combines the first section of the exhibition, dedicated to the family, childhood and youth of the artist, with the third section, devoted to the “transition to maturity” and Moralis’s relationships with friends and associates. On the other hand, it conveys to the viewer an authentic and representative image of a favorite workplace, thus linking the project to the everyday life of the person who implemented it.

Giannis Moralis, a workaholic and completely dedicated to his broad artistic interests, has fully formed his workshop to his own standards and has taken in only a few friends and associates. Now the visitor can kindly look at the avato. His beige cloak slung over the back of a chair, his pencil case, his drawing supplies, his colored essays and personal items, the bench on which he made his drawers, his easels, canvases ready for future work, are all there, adding to pleasure to draw experience.

His beige cape, his painting tools, the bench he created his boxes on, all add to the painting experience.

The exhibition, which in addition to the atelier follows a simple spatial plan and adheres to a chronological order in the narrative, presents more than a hundred paintings, drawings and prints, as well as studies, models, sculptures, ceramics, book illustrations and record covers. . The works and archival materials of the exhibition belong to the Moralis family. Digital applications and photographs from the artist’s family archive accompany the artwork, enhancing the educational aspect of the visitor’s experience.

Along with childhood and family memories, the great artist carefully kept his first crayon and oil drawings, notes and sketches in his studio. Some of the presented works, in particular those relating to the early creative period of the artist, as well as drawings, studies and photographs, are presented to the public for the first time and represent original material that can form the basis of further research approaches.

“From easel painting and narrative expressiveness of anthropocentric compositions, Moralis’s art gradually turns into an unnecessary form or symbol, often acquiring a monumental character in various applications in public space,” art critic and curator Tasos Koutsouris comments in the text that precedes the catalog, and we follow this course.

The exhibition is organized jointly by the Benaki Museum and the Society for the Study, Research and Promotion of Modern Greek Art – the Laboratory of Yiannis Moralis. Duration until January 8th.