RIP Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis was a Greek painter. Tetsis was a genuine exponent of the post-impressionistic seascape tradition.

Born in 1925 on the island of Hydra, where he spent his childhood and early teenage years, Tetsis moved to Piraeus in 1937 .

Legacy

Though the artist depicts marine themes that are familiar to him – mostly set against the backdrop of Hydra and Sifnos. “If I take a long voyage at sea, I get bored,” Tetsis says, “and I don’t agree with Cavafy that headed for Ithaca we ought to hope that the voyage lasts as long as possible.” And he adds: “I paint a large number of my seas from memory. I don’t need to paint them from life. And even if I do, I change them later in my studio, even changing them totally.”

Balancing discipline and emotion, Tetsis regards himself as a painter driven by the senses. His singularity, according to Koutsomallis, consists in his combination of “elegiac colour tones, compositional clarity and precision, thematic variety, a monumental character and freely, openly sketched contours”.

In 1949 Tetsis along with Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Yannis Moralis, Nikos Nikolaou, Nikos Engonopoulos and Yiannis Tsarouchis, established the “Armos” art group.

Wikipedia

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis

 

 

Happy Birthday David Hockney!

English painter, printmaker, photographer and stage designer. Perhaps the most popular and versatile British artist of the 20th century, Hockney made apparent his facility as a draughtsman while studying at Bradford School of Art between 1953 and 1957.

Hockney soon sought ways of reintegrating a personal subject-matter into his art. He began tentatively by copying fragments of poems on to his paintings, encouraging a close scrutiny of the surface and creating a specific identity for the painted marks through the alliance of word and image. These cryptic messages soon gave way to open declarations in a series of paintings produced in 1960–61 on the theme of homosexual love.

Hockney’s subsequent development was a continuation of his student work, although a significant change in his approach occurred after his move to California at the end of 1963. It is clear that when he moved to that city it was, at least in part, in search of the fantasy that he had formed of a sensual and uninhibited life of athletic young men, swimming pools, palm trees and perpetual sunshine.

On his arrival in California, Hockney changed from oil to acrylic paints, applying them as a smooth surface of flat and brilliant colour that helped to emphasise the pre-eminence of the image. By the end of the decade Hockney’s anxieties about appearing modern had abated to the extent that he was able to pare away the devices and to allow his naturalistic rendering of the world to speak for itself.

Source: Tate

Here follows some art from his “Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy”.

Two Boys Aged 23 or 24 1966 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1992 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77564

In an Old Book 1966 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1992 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77568

In the Dull Village 1966 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1992 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77570

The Beginning 1966 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1992 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77571

One Night 1966 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1992 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77572

Portrait of Cavafy II 1966 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1992 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77575