Lot 264: NICOS HADJIKIRIAKOS-GHIKA

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION GREEK 1906-1994 NOCTURNAL HYDRA signed and dated Ghika 67 lower left; signed, dated and titled Ghika 1967 / Nocturnal Hydra on the reverse oil on canvas 60.5 by 92cm., 23¾ by 36¼in.

Dora Iliopoulou-Rogan, N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, The Apollonian- The Dionysian, 1906-1994, exh. cat., Benaki Museum, Athens, 2006, no. 255, p. 150, illustrated Kleanthi-Christina Valkana, Nicos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika, Paintings, Athens, 2011, p. 301, no. 377

Purchased from the artist by the parents of the present owner by the early 1970s

Painted in 1967, the present work depicts Ghika's native island Hydra. Ghika's impressive oeuvre typifies the Greek early twentieth century preoccupation with creating pictorial languages at once international and quintessentially Greek. Indeed, as Fani-Maria Tsigakou has pointed out, Ghika's 'geometrical spaces (...) are often imbued with metaphysical significance. In his open-air scenes he stresses the Greekness of nature by alluding to classical and oriental pictorial traditions. In his sparklingly coloured and carefully composed landscapes he not only managed to capture the dazzling Mediterranean light, but also introduced a modernist spirit into viewing the classic Greek landscape.' (Fani-Maria Tsigakou, Nikos Hadjikyriacos-Ghika, Grove Art Dictionary). According to Dimitris Papastamos, Ghika's 'Greek vision started to materialise systematically, from the most avant-garde to the most conservative forms, and from the grand ambitions to create an art which is both universal and Greek, to the most humble and localistic-nationalistic endeavour to start with the study and discovery of our own surroundings. In Ghika's painting the mixture is a constant quest, and the stimulus for its realisation is provided by his native island Hydra, and by Greek nature and mythology. Islands, houses with sloping roofs, wild flowers, trees and cacti are elements recurring in Ghika's painting. But above all Hydra with its sloping cutting of the rocks, its perched houses and its uphill little roads was the subject of a series of important paintings that essentially define a period of his art after his return to Greece (...).' (Dimitris Papastamos, Painting 1930-40: The Artistic and Aesthetic Vision of the Decade, Athens, 1981, pp. 91-92).