Nikos Engonopoulos

Private Collection, Athens

Athens, Society of Neohellenic Studies and General Education of the Moraitis School, 1976, no. 30
Athens, National Gallery, Nikos Engonopoulos Retrospective, 1983, no. 55
Thessaloniki, Municipal Gallery, Beautiful like a Greek, 1997

S. Boulanikian, 'Nikos Engonopoulos', in Greek Painters, Athens, 1976, vol. II, pp. 262 & 270, illustrated
K. Koumpetsos, 'I Paint the Greek Man', in Tachydromos, 23 December 1976, p. 52, illustrated
F. Bioubi, 'Nikos Engonopoulos. A revealing interview with the Poet and Painter of Surrealism', in IKON, VII, 1981, illustrated
Stelios Lydakis, Greek Painters of the 20th Century, vol. II, Athens, 1988, p. 270, no. 14, illustrated
Drawings and Colours, 1996, p. 152, illustrated
Kathimerini, 1 December 1996, illustrated
Akropolis, 13 March 1999, illustrated
Kathimerini, 17 March 1999, illustrated
Radiotileorasi, 20 March 1999, p. 93, illustrated
Thessaloniki, 28 February 2000, illustrated
Vlachodimos, 2006, p. 221, pl. 49, illustrated
Katerina Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, son univers pictural, Athens, 2007, p. 176, illustrated, p. 338, no. 819, catalogued (as Alexandre, fils de Philippe, et des Grecs sauf les Lacédémoniens)

In this masterpiece of 1963, Engonopoulos pays homage to the richness of Classical Greek history, as Alexander the Great stands beside a group of soldiers clad in armour and bearing arms, with the Acropolis in the distance. The composition reflects Engonopoulos' interest in set design, his figures placed within an ambiguous architectural scene. In such works, the faceless figures represent the people of modern Greece within a traditional and uniquely Greek frame of reference.

The Spartans were the only Greeks that did not take part in Alexander's war against the Persians. When his army won the Battle of the Granicus River in May 334 BC, Alexander sent 300 suits of Persian armour to the Parthenon in Athens, to remind the Greeks that this victory was part of the war of revenge against the Persians and to stir Greek enthusiasm. The ancient Greek biographer Plutarch tells us that Alexander included with these spoils of victory a caption that read: 'Alexander son of Philip and the Greeks, except for the Spartans, won these from the barbarians who inhabit Asia'.

A student of Parthenis at the School of Fine Art in Athens, Engonopoulos is considered the founder of Surrealism in Greek art. In his imagery, the association of reality and myth, classical and modern, embodies the preoccupations of modern Greece through the subconscious. As Niki Loizidi notes, 'Engonopoulos gave [Greece] one version of Surrealism, universal, but at the same time deeply rooted in Greekness'.