The Uncle 1950

George Bouzianis painted "The Uncle" in oil paint, though the exact date is unknown. "The Uncle" gives the impression of a somewhat unsettling and haunted figure. But how might the image create this meaning? Born in Greece in 1885, Bouzianis would come of age during a period of significant social and political change in Europe. Artists working at the time reflected on the anxieties of modernity, the crisis of representation, and the changing relationship between the individual and society. Bouzianis, who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, shows the influence of German Expressionism in his tendency toward abstraction and emphasis on subjective experience. As historians, to better understand an artwork like "The Uncle," we might research the archives of the National Art Gallery, search for publications from the period, or consult the artist's biography and letters. These kinds of resources might reveal the work’s social context and institutional setting.