Nikos Chatzikyriakos-Ghikas went to Paris at a very early age, at the beginning of the Twenties. European Modernism had already completed its various revolutions through a series of movements that developed in different directions. This was a period of syncretism and tolerance. The post-World War I optimism, the intellectual tolerance, the exuberant artistic ambience of Paris, defined the climate which had a formative influence on the young Ghika.
Athens Houses (1927/1928) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
His master Konstantinos Parthenis (1878/1879 – 1967), had prepared him through his methodical teaching based on geometrical principles to comprehend Cubism and geometric abstraction without much effort.
Portrait of a Girl (ca.1935-1940) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Furthermore, this contemplative and educated painter would soon discover the same principles in Byzantine art as well.
Essence and Shadow (1938) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
In Paris which was the foremost artistic center of the time, he said: “I was spontaneously drawn to the most austere form of art, Cubism, or rather its second period, synthetic Cubism”.
Party by the Sea (1931) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
While Αnalytical Cubism sought the reduction of the visible to conceptual shapes, Synthetic Cubism returned to their sources, to the senses, to a new acquaintance with the things themselves, which finally led to Collage.
Chatzikyriakos-Ghikas was initiated on his own behalf in both these variants, but from nature, with light, colour and language all Greek.
Fruit Store "Apollo" (1939) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Apollon Grocery Store helps us understand Ghika's post-cubist idiom.
Carefully reading the painting, one realises that it depicts recognizable objects: a store, its name indicated by a sign.
Underneath a white awning are seen the facade and the door.
Fruit boxes are arrayed in front; there are various vegetables and plants. So, what is new about this painting?
Well, that the artist fragments, refracts the surface — as if we were looking at a grocery store through the pieces of a broken mirror — and depicts a different subject in each piece, in a simple, decorative fashion. The painting thus becomes rather like a puzzle.
Chatzikyriakos-Ghikas loves vivid colors and multiform shapes, and, accordingly, his paintings convey an effect of elan vital and optimism.
The Studio (1960) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Made in a post-cubist style, this fascinating painting introduces us to the artist`s world, his studio. Looking closely at this densely structured puzzle, one gradually makes out several pieces of furniture and other objects that seem lost in a kaleidoscope of colours.
Parisian Roofs (1952) by Hatzikyriakos-Ghika NikosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
A figure of the renowned Thirties Generation in Greece, Ghika developed cubist and constructivist formulations in his painting, achieving a purely personal amalgam of the European avant-garde and indigenous traditional elements.
Texts: Marina Lampraki-Plaka, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, ex-Director, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Project leader: Efi Agathonikou, Head of Collections Department, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Images: Stavros Psiroukis & Thalia Kimpari, Photographic Studio, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Digital curation: Dr. Alexandros Teneketzis, Art Historian & Marina Tomazani, Art Historian, Curator, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.