Nicos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika

Sale: Stavros Mihalarias Art, Athens, 1 March 1988, lot 63
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Athens, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Ghika, May 1973, no. 143

Kleanthi-Christina Valkana, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika. Paintings, Athens, 2012, no. 397, p. 303, illustrated

The canvas has not been lined. There are no signs of retouching visible under ultraviolet light. This work is overall in very good condition and ready to hang. Presented in gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame with a cream inner accent.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the present work, Ghika transforms a simple view through a trees' gnarled branches and foliage into a pulsating, three-dimensional use of space with a jubilant palette.  Labyrinthine branches and vines coil around bulbous, contorting tree trunks, fighting against the imposed borders of the canvas. This pulsing and contorted landscape is a familiar idiom in the oeuvre of Ghika, but his distinctively poetic geometry is cast aside for an even more emotional and directly descriptive rendering. The origami-like quality of seemingly folded planes of different decorative designs adds a strong sense of dynamism to the structure, in which each element hums with activity. Nothing is strictly representational, and space and surface are manipulated by Ghika's skilled brush.

The subjects and style of much of Ghika's work as well as his position as a leading figure of the Thirties Generation was a celebration of Greek culture and history; he drew his inspiration from ancient Mediterranean civilizations first and foremost, with Far Eastern art, Byzantine mosaics and cubism also holding great importance to the artist.

Beginning and ending his life in Greece, Nikos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika began his artistic scholarship under Konstantinos Parthenis in Athens, relocating to Paris to enrol at the Sorbonne, the Ranson Academy and the studio of Dimitris Galanis. This erudite, well-travelled and sophisticated background would nourish a hungry mind, open to the concept of an analytic and mathematical form of modernism. This rupture with the time-honoured tradition of the Munich School nevertheless was represented by a predominantly Parisian modernist movement, infused in theme, subject or spirit by a distinctively Hellenic character. This visual vocabulary owed much to the methodical teaching of Parthenis, with its emphasis on geometric principles, and to the Byzantine art that Ghika cherished, incorporating its 'strictness, the geometric, hierarchy,' and the work of artistic luminaries of the Parisian modernist enclave such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque (in Marina Lambraki-Plaka, ed., Four Centuries of Greek Painting, Athens, 1999, p. 139).