Erotic 1998

Yiannis Moralis made 'Erotic' with paint, but I can't tell you exactly when. The color palette is really pared back, mostly browns, blacks and whites. It's like he's set himself a challenge to see how much feeling he can squeeze out of a very limited set of options. Looking closely, the paint seems quite flat, applied in neat planes without much texture. It's as if he's more interested in the relationships between the shapes than in the sensuality of the medium itself, although the sensuality comes through anyway in the curves of the forms. Notice how Moralis uses these simplified forms to hint at the human body, but never quite spells it out. I find myself filling in the blanks, and maybe that's part of the point. This reductive approach to the figure reminds me a little of some of the work of Picasso. Both artists are interested in breaking down and reassembling the body, like a puzzle, or maybe a lover’s embrace.