Born in Mytilene, nourished by tradition, legends, without
any artistic education or training whatsoever, Theophilos followed his instincts and created naive compositions illustrating Greece, tradition,
nature, its myths, offering a means of expression that the intellectuals
of the inter-war period recognized as quintessentially Greek. The Greekness of Theophilos
consists, on the one hand, of his capacity to render with the simplest means the light
of his country, the Greek atmosphere and the Greek landscape, and, on the other,
of his Greek themes, which demonstrate that he experienced
Greek tradition as an uninterrupted sequence. Despised and mocked at the beginning, his art
was later recognized and Theophilos was elevated to a teacher of Greekness
in art and as a unique case in modern Greek painting.
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