IYP X B & M Theocharakis Foundation, Athens

The curator of the exhibition, Takis Mavrotas, mentions: “Gaitis, was a young and lively spirit in his time. After the tragic civil war and the enormous socio-economic difficulties faced by Greece, he decided to settle in Paris in 1954, at the age of 31, where he lived for many years. By his side, the muse of his creative spirit, stood the introverted and dynamic sculptor Gabriela Simossi.

Gaitis’s work is flooded with hundreds of “protagonists”, who we sometimes encounter on the surface of a canvas and sometimes they come out of it. You get the feeling that he wishes to open his own dialogue with pop art. Andy Warhol, who popularized pop art in America, is known for his Campbell cans, portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola bottles, and U.S. dollar prints. Yiannis Gaitis is Greek, baptized in the Aegean Sea, and, with his directness, gives his own interpretation of pop art and his own answers to the great questions of our time. His Little Men travel to the distant past, to our ancient past, asking us to identify their ontological presence within history. He elaborates on the idea of overlapping forms that results in the creation of his well-known Little Man: the man without an identity and a wide-brimmed hat and briefcase. Expressionless and stereotypical figures, always lined up in groups, usually in plaid or striped suits, participate in our social life.

It is no coincidence that Gaitis placed these Little Men outside, in the streets, allowing direct contact with the public, such as the encounter that occurred during his 1975 exhibition at the City Hall of Kokkinia, where the stylised figures, along with countless colourful flags, decorated the street and the square in front of the City Hall. There, his work entered everyday life, leaving the strict spaces of museums».

The exhibition will be accompanied by a multi-page catalogue of the same title, with all the exhibited works