NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS (1907-1985) Poète et villageois

NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS (1907-1985)
Poète et villageois
signé en grec et daté "65" en bas à droite
huile sur toile
55 x 45cm. (21 5/8 x 17 11/16in.)
Peint en 1965.

signed in greek and dated "65" lower right
oil on canvas
Provenance
Private collection, Athens.

Expositions
Athens, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Nikos Engonopoulos retrospective exhibition, April 3-15, 1983, no. 62 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, p. 44).

Littérature
Eleftheros Kosmos newspaper, March 29, 1981 (illustrated).
K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 689, pp. 317, 469 (illustrated).

I am a Greek along with the familiar images that surround me.
N. Engonopoulos

Captured in dazzling Byzantine colours, flooded with light, and bathed in a translucent atmosphere of clarity and glow, this signature Engonopoulos is imbued with a genuine and deep-felt sense of Greekness. Everything here, from the two figures¹ in tunics who convey a feeling of archaic immobility, to the bright blue sky dotted with travelling clouds, to the ancient temple perched on a rocky outcrop, and the ubiquitous coffee house table and straw chair, is conceived with a centuries-old Greek sensibility. The artist boldly declares that this archetypal environment is a stunning presence, while the sea is actually never far away, reaching into the shore like a friendly hand.

As noted by art historian N. Loizidi, "Engonopoulos gave us one version of surrealism, universal, but at the same time deeply rooted in Greekness."² In a similar vein, S. Boulakian points out that "the lack of vast open spaces and supernatural landscapes whose sheer size nullifies the human scale, is a typically Greek element. Engonopoulos's work emulates Greece's natural environment, a setting that both frames and accentuates human activity."³

In Poet et villageois, colour, a key element throughout Engonopoulos's artistic career, has a leading role. The glittery, enamel-like reds, yellows, blues, and greens are applied side by side on the canvas without tonal gradations, inviting the viewer to a festive ritual of purity. As noted by art critic M. Gyparaki, Engonopoulos is a dedicated coloriste, adhering to a long and rich Greek tradition that goes way back to the Homeric epics, a world full of colours that are bound with natural elements, human acts and everyday objects.⁴

¹. The seated figure wears a ring on his index finger, essentially identifying with Engonopoulos himself who used to wear a characteristic ring on the same finger. See D. Menti, Faces and Masks [in Greek], Gutenberg editions, Athens 2007, pp. 135-136, note 34. See also Chartis review, no. 25-26, November 1988, p. 172.
². N. Loizidi, Surrealism in Modern Greek Art [in Greek], Athens 1984, p. 181.
³. S. Boulakian, "The Work of Nikos Engonopoulos" in Greek Painters - 20th Century [in Greek], Melissa editions, Athens 1974, p. 261.
⁴. See Nikos Engonopoulos, Drawing or Colour [in Greek], Ikaros editions, 2007, p. 126.