10 colored drawings for the poems of George Seferis 1965

Yiannis Moralis made this colored drawing in 1965, and it feels like he’s trying to find something, pushing the pastel around on the paper to conjure up a scene. The grey, black and blue are like a muted memory, and yet there’s this dove, a symbol of peace, hanging out in the middle of it all. What was Moralis thinking when he made this? Maybe he was wrestling with the weight of history, the burden of the past, and this dove comes to offer a little hope. I love how the marks are so direct and unpretentious, each stroke laying down a piece of feeling, the dove’s pastel feathers vibrating with feeling. It’s like he's speaking to other artists across time, keeping the conversation of painting alive, suggesting that even in the face of uncertainty, beauty and meaning can still emerge.