Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Yannis Stavrou, Forest, oil on canvas

"...I attempted to put in his classification a new type of man who to-day predominates in the world: I called him the mass-man, and I observed that his main characteristic lies in that, feeling himself "common," he proclaims the right to be common, and refuses to accept any order superior to himself. It was only natural that if this mentality is predominant in every people, it should be manifest also when we consider the nations as a group. There are then also relatively mass-peoples determined on rebelling against the great creative peoples, the minority of human stocks which have organised history." - Jose Ortega Y Gassett

*The harbor is old...

Yannis Stavrou, Piraeus, oil on canvas

The harbor is old, I can’t wait any longer
for the friend who left for the island of pine trees
or the friend who left for the island of plane trees
or the friend who left for the open sea.
I stroke the rusted cannons, I stroke the oars
so that my body may revive and decide.
The sails give off only the smell
of salt from the other storm.

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* from Georgios Sepheris poem

Hydra

Yannis Stavrou, Hydra, oil on canvas

"Hydra saved its beautiful face from the catastrophic mania of our age by chance, I would say. Although some houses have been added, the initial picture is preserved; the simple and the wise architecture of the old masters, the stone constructions, the roofs..."

Nocturnal

Yannis Stavrou, Acropolis 1970, oil on canvas

"Shiny, misty or nocturnal images fascinate you through the aura of the light that surrounds the forms. Parthenon, the top ideal of classicism, stands on the Acropolis hill. The synthesis reveals a calm splendor shaping the ideas of harmony and apocalyptic light. The light of the nocturnal paintings becomes almost mystic due to the sensitive use of the oil material..." from a text written on Yannis Stavrou by the art historian Marina Pisperi.