Boatyard on Mount Athos
A symphony of harmonious tones, Boatyard on Mount Athos offers a glimpse into the secluded world of the Athonite monasteries, depicting a quiet setting of building complexes, their stillness reflected on the calm seawater. During his long stay on Mount Athos in 1923, Papaloukas studied Byzantine art and also painted works inspired by the imposing surroundings, a subject which would repeatedly appear in his oeuvre. The stylised bright surfaces absorbing the strong light are juxtaposed with the warmly subdued ochres and the cool translucent greys, all conveying a beautiful, mosaic-like expressionistic image.
Spyros Papaloukas, one of the pioneers of twentieth-century Greek art, had studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and at the Chaumière and Julian Academies in Paris. Predominantly a landscape painter, his compositions are evocative views of the Greek world reflecting his influence from impressionism, pointillism and Les Nabis. Having assimilated the teachings of Byzantine art and introducing the achievements of the contemporary European movements which he had explored in Paris, he painted landscapes, portraits, still life paintings and everyday scenes. A well-travelled artist, a war painter in the Asia Minor Campaign of 1922, a founding member of the ‘Techni’ group (1917), appointed director of the Athens Municipal Art Gallery (1940), one of the publishers of the art review To Trito Mati (The Third Eye), and professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Papaloukas had a remarkably varied and influential presence in the arts in Greece.