Exhibited:
Athens, 9th Panhellenic Exhibition, Zappion, 1967
Larissa, Municipal gallery, Y. Katsigras Museum, Polykleitos Regos, 11 December 1998 – 5 February 1999, no 37 (illustrated)

Born on the island of Naxos, his father hailing from Tinos and his mother from Mykonos, P. Regos, one of the most prominent exponents of Greek landscape painting and the founder of the Thessaloniki art scene1, was well versed in the secrets of the sea. In his early youth, when he visited Thessaloniki in the summer, “he stood alone on the pier in front of the White Tower, his bright eyes staring at the sea and the distant horizon.”2 In Seascape I, the overhanging clouds and dark-blue waves convey the artist’s sense impression and emotional response to nature, charging the composition with a highly expressive thrust and a spiritual, almost religious feeling, like the distant echo of a Byzantine hymn. Effectively combining elements from Byzantine art with a yearning for new forms of expression, Regos demonstrates in such mature works a highly personal style that does not negate tradition but enriches it with the element of exploration.

1. D. Papastamos, preface in the artist’s retrospective exhibition catalogue [in Greek], National Gallery-A. Soutzos Museum, Athens 1980, p. 9.
2. G. Vafopoulos, Autobiographical Pages, vol. 1, 1970, as reprinted in the National Gallery’s catalogue, p. 13.