Lot 48: NICOS HADJIKIRIAKOS-GHIKA

NICOS HADJIKIRIAKOS-GHIKA GREEK 1906-1994 WINDOW, EASEL AND REFLECTIONS signed and dated 88 lower right acrylic on canvas 118 by 162cm., 46½ by 63¾in.

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Nikolas Hadjikyriakos-Ghika: Recent Works, 1988, no. 9

Athens, Benaki Museum, Ghika, The Artist's Studios, 1999, fig. 1, p. 106, illustrated in the catalogue

Private Collection, Athens

With bold lines contrasting with vividly dynamic brushstrokes, the present work forms part of a series of works in which Ghika painted his own studio. Of Ghika's Studio, Ioanna Kritseli-Providi has written, 'It is where, surrounded by his means of expression, the tools of the trade, his paints and brushes, the artist transformed inspiration into works of art. There is undoubtedly some sort of interdependence between artist and studio: the painter often depicts his workplace, either partially or as a whole. On the other hand, the studio's space gradually and almost indiscernibly takes on something of its owner's personality and becomes a singular, in situ, work of art' (Ioanna Kritseli-Providi, 'Ghika's Studios' in Ghika,The Artist's Studios, exh. cat., Benaki Museum, Athens, 1999, p. 9.). Though he himself is absent, Ghika plays on the reflexive act of painting itself – the landscape beyond the window repeating surrealistically in the canvas to the left, leaving the viewer unsure where painting ends and real life begins.

Ghika was one of the most influential Greek artists of his generation, a leading figure in the artistic movements of the 1930s and one of the most important exponents of modern Greek art. During his lifetime he exhibited over fifty times in cities including Athens, Paris, London, New York, Venice, Berlin and Geneva, and his paintings can be found in the collections of the National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, the Benaki Museum, the Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, the Tate Gallery, London, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.