Lot 14: NICOS HADJIKIRIAKOS-GHIKA

NICOS HADJIKIRIAKOS-GHIKA GREEK 1906-1994 STILL LIFE WITH BRANCHES signed and dated 37 lower left egg tempera on board 71 by 119cm., 28 by 46¾in.

Athens, British Council, 1946, no. 24
Athens, Greek/American Union, 1973
Athens, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, 1973, no. 14
Athens, To Trito Mati, 1979

Vima, 28 November 1946
Athene, Chicago, vol. VIII, Summer, 1947, p. 7, no. 2
Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis, Ghika - Catalogue of his Painted Works 1921-1940, Athens, 1979, p. 218, no. 196, illustrated

Private Collection, Athens

Still Life with Branches was painted after Ghika's 1934 return to Greece, and at around the time he was editor of the Third Eye, an avant-garde magazine which introduced new aesthetic currents to Greece. Ghika painted the work with strong, solid forms and a relatively narrow colour palette, focussing on red-browns and earthy yellows. The organic, irregular shapes of the branches contrast with the three dimensional depth of the fragments of wall around them, which serve to divide the space.