The Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra will present the Vassilis Theocharakis exhibition Glaucus Sea which will be inaugurated by the Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Olga Kefalogianni, on Saturday, September 16, 2023, at 20:00 in Hydra.

This thematic exhibition will include more than thirty representative oil paintings and watercolors from the last years of the painter’s work. And as Panagiotis Tetsis has pointed out: ”Theocharakis sees, he does not imagine, nor does he resort to the leaven of memories. He observes and captures everything that catches his eye. Some of his works give the impression that he is searching to capture the moment, a moment, the foam of the sea through the pebbles; it gives the impression that he is examining, investigating; to find what? something precious and the precious is in front of him: the bottom with the pebbles. He sees not from the height of the eye horizon, a little higher, from some distance down, and carefully studies the seascape. My personal impression is such, it is what I am commenting on.Why these minor remarks? Because these and more count, apart from the inner warmth with which he is endowed, which is the motivation of his painting. He has the virtue and ranks in the great family of those who have open eyes and insist on painting. They are the believers of painting, the opposite of those who have been indoctrinated in the international conspiracy of denial. Everyone does what they think. Affirmation of freedom in action”.

The Head of the General State Archives, Mrs. Dina Adamopoulou, has emphasized among others: “The main theme of the exhibition in Hydra, the sea, is for Vassilis Theocharakis one of the primary values of his Art. How could it not be for a man endowed with corresponding sensibilities, since not only Art but also Life itself invests in its mysterious and enchanting beauty? Except that the seas of Theocharakis are painted with his completely personal handwriting, with the stamp of his own ink that magically manages to render with rough lines the blue brightness, the shining of the sun, the imposing gray of the rocks, the perpetual movement of the liquid element…The art and technique of our dear Vassilis Theocharakis is a treasure for all of us!”

Vasilis Theocharakis was born in Piraeus. Along with his studies at the Law School of the University of Athens, from where he graduated in 1957, he attended painting classes with the great painter Spyros Papaloukas, Professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His works were presented for the first time in 1957, at the International Youth Festival in Moscow, as well as at the 5th Panhellenic Painting Exhibition in Zappeion. He has held many individual exhibitions in Greece and abroad and has participated in many group exhibitions. His works can be found in public and private collections in Greece (National Gallery-Alexander Soutsos Museum, Vorre Museum, Pieridis Foundation, Rhodes Gallery, Cyclades Gallery, Telloglion Art Foundation of the University of Athens, MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art-Collections of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the State Museum of Contemporary Art, etc.), as well as abroad. He has been honored by the French government with the distinction of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, he has been named Grand Cartulary of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he has received the Order of the Rising Sun with Neck Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan as well as the decoration of the Order’s Superior Brigadier of Finikos by the President of the Hellenic Republic. In 2007, he founded the non-profit Vassilis & Marina Theocharakis Visual Arts and Music Foundation, which is housed in the multi-storey building at 9 Vasilissis Sofias Street, in Athens.

The exhibition will last until November 16, 2023 and will be accompanied by a multi-page catalog of the same title of the Melissa publications, with all the exhibited works, as well as texts by Christopher Hudson (former Director of Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York), Takis Mavrotas, Claudio Strinati (former Curator of the Museums of Rome), Panagiotis Tetsis, Marina Lambrakis-Plakas and Angelos Delivorias.

Exhibition Curator: Takis Mavrotas