When you leave Paris - selected paintings by Yiannis Moralis

 

Two Friends, 1946.

The Table, 1947.

Ioanna N. Lourou, circa 1940.

Self-portrait of the artist with Nikolaos Nikolaou, 1937.

M. D., 1943.

Composition with Mandolin, Books, and Apples, 1939.

Maria Roussen (the artist's first wife), 1943.

Pregnant Woman (the artist's second wife, Aglaia Lyberaki, pregnant with their son Konstantinos), 1948.

Sculptor John Pappas, 1938.

Still-life, 1939.

Nikolaos Louros, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1949.

1951.

1950.

1955.

Still-life with Hats, 1939.

Self-portrait with the artist's first wife, 1943.

Still-life with Shoes, 1941.

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Yiannis Moralis (Greek: Γιάννης Μόραλης; also transliterated Yannis Moralis or Giannis Moralis; 23 April 1916, Arta - 20 December 2009, Athens), Greek visual artist and part of the so-called "Generation of the Thirties". He moved with his parents to Athens when he was eleven, and from the age of fifteen he studied at the School of Fine Arts there. Five years later he received a grant from this school to study for a year in Rome. After this, he went to Paris to study fresco and mural work at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He also studied mosaic at the École des Arts et Métiers. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he returned to Greece. The first exhibition of one of his works was in 1940; numerous other exhibitions followed both nationally and internationally. During the war, he focused on portraiture, ensuring a steady income. In 1941 he married Maria Roussen, but they divorced only four years later. In 1947 he married sculptor Aglaia Lyberaki; they had a son, Konstantinos, before, in 1955, they too divorced. From 1947 he taught at the Athens School of Fine Arts until his retirement in 1983. During this time he was also involved with creating set and costume designs for the Greek National Theatre and the Greek National Ballet; illustrating poetic works by Odysseas Elytis and Giorgos Seferis; and decorating architectural works such as the façade of the Athens Hilton, the Metro-Station "Panepistimiou", and the Athens Central Station. In 1965 he was decorated by King Constantine II with the Order of the Phoenix. From the 1970s, he moved away from the realistic depictions of the human form towards a geometric abstraction. He died in Athens at the age of ninety-three.