Despite his father’s reaction, 16-year-old Anastasios Alevizos from Lefkochora, Messini, is taking his exams in School of Fine Arts Athens and accepted. He was one of the first to enroll in the engraving workshop of Yiannis Kefalinos – the workshop did not work for 17 years and reopened in the early 1930s. His fellow students are Vaso Katraki, Lukia Maggioru, his partner for life Yannis Moralis. One of the first works he created while still in his last year is The Madman with a Red Flower.

He carved a male figure with a bandage on his head in the 39th. But when he was invited to participate with other Greek artists in an exhibition that was supposed to take place in his ruined rooms. National Archaeological Museum in the 42nd, he decided that he had to finish it woodcut. This addition led to his arrest and imprisonment by the occupying forces. The flower symbolized, according to the conquerors, all the suffering of the Greek people of that time. It is also a work that welcomes us to the retrospective exhibition. “A. Engraving of Thassos”.which opens tomorrow at Gallery of the Municipality of Central Corfu and the Diapontian Islands, curated by art historian Yannis Bolis.

“The exhibition is a continuation of the retrospective dedicated to Vasso Katraki – we are talking about the two poles of engraving,” emphasizes G. Bolis.

“This exhibition is a natural continuation of the retrospective exhibition dedicated to Vasso Katraki in 2022,” notes the curator. “We are talking about the two poles of engraving, the roles of Yiannis Kefallinos and Dimitris Galanis before the war. They studied together during the same turbulent period for Greece, they had the same beliefs, they both participated in the EAM artist group, and their themes were the same. Each one speaks with his material and style about a person, a group, their common destiny, anxieties and hopes, and refers to the basic principles: life, death, solidarity, freedom, democracy.”

Graphic arts

The exhibition follows in chronological order all stages of the engraver’s rich career: from student years, color woodcuts of the 50s, to works that complained about the suppression of human dignity during the dictatorship of the colonels and works of the decade of the 80s. At the same time, he illuminates through illustrations and illuminates his activities in the field of graphics. “He was a pioneer. He considered graphic design to be equivalent to engraving,” says Yannis Bolis. 46 works – woodcuts, 3 wooden plates, and books – belong to the A. Thassos Fine Arts Society. The society, founded a year after his death, in 1985, at the initiative of Lucia Maggioru, had a dual purpose: to preserve the archive, to promote his work, and to provide a platform for new engravers.

“The exhibition features eight never-before-seen works and three wooden ink plates that introduce us to his working method,” says company president Irini Orati. For her, the end of the 50s is the most important and recognizable period of his work. That’s when Tassos decides that the experiments with color are over and he must turn to the relationship between white and black. Yannis Bolis agrees. “He understands that black and white should be the basis of his art.” It uses large sheets of paper for printing, the forms are simplified, formalized. He begins to work with rough tools on wood, and the engravings become rougher. The areas of black on the print are also large, giving space for the two opposites to communicate. “His figures are squeezed into narrow outlines, their faces are characterized by cruelty, but also determination,” comments Irini Orati. Even this choice of his lies behind symbolism. During the junta he worked quietly, and his work with major political themes and monumental compositions was reflected in a major exhibition in November 1975. National Gallerywho today also owns most of his work, a total of 150 woodcuts, which he donated in March ’85, shortly before his death.

Exhibition “A. Tassos Engraving” will run until July 9th.