The Foundation of the Hellenic World presents the virtual tour of the exhibition “on the side of the wise and the crazy: Tribute to Theophilos Hatzimichail” with more than seventy old and recent works by distinguished contemporary Greek artists. The exhibition gathers important new and significant old works with the generous contribution of their collectors - including a small but precious core of original works by Theophilos. It involves an organic dialogue with the physical person and work of the painter, who occupies a unique and primary place in the history of modern Greek art and honors the heroes who fought for the Freedom of the Greek nation like no one else, while simultaneously serving as an eternal interlocutor and inspirer for top visual and intellectual creators of our country.
The abundant world of Greek primary locality, which Theophilos himself conveys through self-existent ideas and his own inventions, through bright color and classic self-taught plasticity, through tender everyday discoveries and timeless Greek myths, the exhibition attempts to approach in the manner of a modern visual conversation.
In the exhibition, with works provided from the personal archives of the artists or private collections, the participants are:
Io Aggeli, Giannis Adamakis, Vangelis Anetopoulos, Stelios Alexakis, Nektarios Aposporis, Katia Varvaki, Nikos Vatopoulos, Alexis Veroukas, Eirini Vogiatzis, Kiki Voulgareli, Marios Voutsinas, Mary Galani Kritikou, Maria Geroula, Nektaria Giakmoglidou, Katerina Giannaka, Stratigoula Giannikopoulou, Eirini Gonou, Dikaia Despotaki, Maria Diakodimitriou, Niki Eleftheriadi, Giannis Efthimiou, Petros Themelis, Apostolis Itskoudis, Stavroula Kaziale, Thrasivoulos Kalaitzidis, Sofia Kalogeropoulou, Elpiniki Kamosou, Minas Kampitakis, KAPETAN MYGAC, Voula Karabatzaki, Panos Kardasis, Nikolas Klironomos, Nikos Koniaris, Eutychia Lavda, Vasilis Liaouris, Nektarios Mamais, Kostas Maniatopoulos, Tasos Mantzavinos, Panagiotis Marinis, Minas Mavrikakis, Stella Meletopoulou, Giannis Metzikev, Georgia Mpliatsou, Dimitris Moraros, Rouli Mpoua, Geuso Papadaki, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos, Kostas Papatriantafyllopoulos, Christina Paraskevopoulou, Liza Pentheroudaki, Vasilis Perros, Giorgos Petsikopoulos, Nikos Podias, Maria Pop, Katerina Samara, Ifigeneia Sdoukous, Giorgos Sklaveinas, Eugenios Spatharis, Christos Stanisis, Marina Stellatou, Ioanna Tarlidou, Vaso Trigka, Kleopatra Tsali, Claire Tsalouchidi – Chatzimina, Theodora Tsatsiou, Virginia Filippousi, Apostolos Chantzaras, Athena Chatzi, Nikolaos Christopoulos, Nikolaos Christoforakis.
And from the personal collection of Lakis Papastathis:
Lida Kontogiannopoulou, Miltos Pantelias, Vasilis Sperantzas, Giorgos Stathopoulos, Alekos Fasianos, Panos Feidakis.
Excerpt from the exhibition catalog text by the curator:
“Starting with Theophilos and the handmade primer of his own anguished personal vortex and image-making meticulousness, with the internal representative gaze of the participants turned to some of the recorded incidents, the determining landmarks for him, the heroic ghosts and the intangible chapels of his difficult life, an attempt is made to create an autonomous organic note field with visual, plastic, and literal or symbolic references. Greek archaic, classical, and modern folk mythology in his work, this unique vibrant and spontaneous expression that in the international history of art was called naïve (and where he himself ultimately, according to Tsarouchis, perhaps does not belong, as he was a devoted scholar of Greek classical and European visual models - such as the works of Peter von Ess), his fervent and selfless love for everything small and great Greek that beckons in an imperceptible way to the scholarly yet also deeply lived approach of Cavafy and Seferis, Elytis, Tsarouchis, and the other cornerstones of the 1930s generation for the same fabric, the characteristic design, the shining color, the plastic details and the conceptual markings of people, myths, and heroes, beasts and birds, cities and buildings, the golden-adorned costumes and the glossy landscapes, become the abundant sources for the contemporary works and the sketch-like visual narrative of the exhibition”.
“The exhibition starts with the portraits of the painter, sometimes realistically rendered and sometimes depicted as shadows of presence or sanctified small universes.
