The Giorgos Zymarakis Exhibition

One of the most beloved subjects in the overall work of Giorgos Zymarakis is Chian ships.

“Vessels moored in the harbour, deep-sea ships anchored offshore, waiting for their next cargo run and fresh crews.
The last of the wooden caiques with sails and single-cylinder engines, the passenger steamers of the Piraeus– Chios–Mytilene line and the battered rust buckets of the ‘barren route’. The Erturk and the Vasiliki of Captain Stamatis Miniotis on the Chios–Çeşme crossing, and the little boat to Oinousses that departs at 2.30 p.m.—‘afternoon coffee time’, as the off-duty captains from Vrontados would say.

Cargo schooners (karavoskara), coasters (peramata), fishing smacks (trechantiria), small sailing boats (varkalades), row-and-sail boats (tsernikia), lighters (kourites), barges (maounes), trawlers (trates), sailing trawlers (anemotrates), purse seiners (gri-gri), fishing boats and tourist cruisers. Steamships, ocean liners, Liberty ships, gas tankers and other vessels long erased by time, but brought back vividly to tell their stories, through memories of a more reflective age.

Ships we knew. owned by our relatives and our friends. Familiar outlines, shaped by centuries of seafaring, moving in harmony over the waves, bringing joy and gifts—‘the handkerchiefs’, they used to call them back then, symbols of homecoming with messages of good news.

‘Heave ho! God will provide’
‘God provides, this too shall pass’
Inscriptions painted on the caiques, to keep spirits up as the anchors rose, the winches turned and the loads were hoisted skyward.”

G. Zymarakis

Scenes of a vanished world, revived in vibrant colour and sweeping perspective—distillations of the soul, the fruit of an artistic style which began during his school years under the guidance of K. Karagatsis, the Munich-based impressionist and the engraver Nikos Yialouris. His work evolved later in New York, Paris and Athens, where he settled.

He brings to life alluring scenes from the 1950s, when he first began painting ships in Chios harbour nearly seventy years ago.

He sailed as a cadet officer aboard the motor tanker Nicolas, belonging to the Lyras Brothers, then joined the Canadian Liberty ship Archanax, owned by G.M. Livanos, from which he disembarked in New York. There he studied both fine and applied arts leading to a career spanning 30 years. Yet  he always delighted in the opportunity of sharing the fruits of his labour which nourish the soul. Brimming with creative ideas and guided by a passion for expressing gratitude through gifts of memory.