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The Benaki Museum in Athens is joining forces with the Yiannis Tsarohis Foundation to organize the first ever complete retrospective exhibition, showing the work of the glorious Greek painter Yiannis Tsarouhis. The display is titled “Yiannis Tsarouhis 1910-1989” and will be open to the public from the 19^th of December 2009 to the 14^th of Mrch 2010. Next year, the painter’s family and relatives will celebrate a centenary since his birth and have decide to organize the exposition to commemorate the milestone.

The collection to be displayed is composed of around 670 paintings, sketches, models and projects made by the internationally distinguished artist. The works belong to museums and private collections in Greece as well as around the world. These works present the diversity of Tsarouhis’ work and will show the public the entirety of his magnificence. In the center of his art one will find a focus on the human rather than the world and nature. His art levitates around the happiness of being alive and the miracles and mysteries that life itself offers.

In the context of his art we can understand Tsarouhis’ excitement with clothing. He is deeply interested in the fabric and textile of the clothes. At some point in his life he falls for weaving and even manages to grasp the basics of it. Tsarouhis shows an overall interest and analysis of the Greek national costume, especially the one from Pireaus – the region he himself came from. Because of this interest we can often observe in his work motives from the national and folklore tradition.

Apart from being a distinguished painter, Tsarouhis is famous for his decoration work and involvement in theatrical clothing. His collaboration with some of Greece’s best in the area of performance art including Maria Kalas, Melina Merkouri, Karolos Kun, Aleksis Miniotis, Maria Kotopouli and many others has left a profound trace in national theatre. During his life Tsarouhis has also researched Byzantine iconography and written surreal poetry. According to his followers, he becomes a building block in Greek art together with Pikioni, Kondoglou and Hatzimichalis. Tsarouhis himself is the person who introduced the famous sailor motive to the theater – both in his dancing and static form.

Tsarouhis was an artist influenced by a number of cultures. His frequent journeys around the world and his stay in Italy and France have brought him closer to the Renaissance and Impressionism, as well as other trends in art that were modern at the time in Europe. Inspired by the contrasting magnificence of the East and Europe, Tsarouhis is one of the few artists that have managed to combine these cultures in his art as well as find the perfect balance between them by capturing their foremost traditions and the constant artistic values through time.  Such an achievement is not within every artist’s arsenal and many have envied Tsarouhis for that.

Yiannis Tsarouhis describes his own experience as follows: “By working with fine art I have learned important lessons for life. I have also taken a lot from my life to my art and found the joy of the perfect balance. A balance that is neither fearful not frightening – it’s just my instinct for life.”