Lot 151: Argyris Stylianidis (Greek 1909-1998)

Roofs
signed with initials and dated '63 (lower right)
acrylic on canvas
57.5 x 84 cm. (22 5/8 x 33 in.)

Exhibited:
Athens, Zappeion, 7th Panhellenic exhibition, 1963

Stylianidis studied with Constantinos Parthenis, the first Greek artist to introduce French ideas of light and colour to his students and to inspire them to explore other means of expression, shifting their vision away from the academicism of the Munich Academy. While Stylianidis' early works betrayed the strong influence of his teacher, he developed his own artistic vocabulary during the 1960s. Focusing on the strict arrangement of geometric forms on canvas, as in the present work, and the concentration on composition and light, Stylianidis was one of the few representatives of the Thirties Generation not to concern himself with the issue of an artistic idiom rooted in the idea of "Greekness".