- 33
Georgios Bouzianis Greek, 1885-1959
Description
- Georgios Bouzianis
- Self Portrait
oil on canvas
- 101.5 by 70cm., 40 by 27½in.
Provenance
Heinrich Barchfeld, Leipzig, purchased from the artist
Herbert Marwitz, Munich
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Munich, Bayerische Versicherungskammer, 1985, no. 1
Literature
Dimitris Deligiannis, Bouzianis, Athens, 1996, no. 71, p. 89, illustrated
Catalogue Note
Commissioned by Bouzianis' patron and agent Heinrich Barchfeld, the present work was painted at the height of the artist's Munich period, cut short by the rise of the Nazis in the early 1930s. Self Portrait epitomises Bouzianis' preoccupation with colour over form, and the expression of feeling over subject.
Widely regarded as Greece's leading expressionist painter, Bouzianis was deeply influenced by the avant-garde currents with which he came into contact while in Munich from 1907-1934. Whilst in Germany, Bouzianis became associated with the two groups of Expressionist painters Die Brücke - which counted among its members Kirchner, Schmitt-Rottluff, Pechstein and Nolde, and Der blaue Reiter, led by Kandinsky and Franz Marc. These painters explored the passage to a more spiritual existence and the expression of human feeling in the light of what they saw as an encroaching destructive industrial civilization.
Bouzianis believed that through painting he could express innermost human feelings. In his work it is obvious that his own questioning led him away from faithful rendering of nature to depicting the agony of Man in his everyday inner struggle. In his early portraits, Bouzianis keeps the outward characteristics of a familiar and composed personality. Later on, the outer form of the human figure becomes secondary, giving way to expression of the artist's soul through broken lines and swirling colours. The struggle for existence becomes obvious by compressed expressionistic means.
The present work differs from conventional portraiture by virtue of its dynamic brushstrokes, and tonal qualities, which imbue the painting with great intensity. Bouzianis is known to have painted several self-portraits throughout his lifetime. The present work is the largest and most important example to appear at auction.
We are grateful to Gerhard Bouzianis for confirming the authenticity of this work.