Nicos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika

Estimate

100,000 - 150,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Nicos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika
Still Life with Branches
signed and dated 37 lower left
egg tempera on board
71 by 119cm., 28 by 46¾in.

Provenance

Private Collection, Athens

Exhibited

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

Literature

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

Catalogue Note

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.