Nicos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika

Herbert List (a gift from the artist);
thence by descent

The singular geometric austerity, sharp tonal contrasts and bold form exhibited in the present work, and Ghika's work at this early date, bear certain aesthetic similarities with the photography of Herbert List, to whom the present work is dedicated. It is likely that List's European travels in the 1930s would have brought him in contact with Ghika, a fellow member of the modernist avant-garde.

Herbert List (1903-1975) was a German photographer who worked for publications as prominent as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Life. Celebrated for his austere and elegant black-and-white compositions, often of male nudes and taken in Italy and Greece, List influenced many contemporary fashion photographers, such as Herb Ritts. After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, List moved to London, where he began to produce what he called 'photografica metafisica', attempting to capture and illustrate fantastic imagery and dream states with mirrors and photographic techniques like double exposure.