Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (Greek, 1906-1994)
Still life with vegetables
signed 'Ghika' (lower right); signed, dated "76" and titled 'coliflower' (on the reverse)
oil on board
24 x 34 cm.
signed 'Ghika' (lower right); signed, dated "76" and titled 'coliflower' (on the reverse)
oil on board
24 x 34 cm.
Estimate:
£16,000 - 20,000
€19,000 - 24,000
US$ 24,000 - 30,000
€19,000 - 24,000
US$ 24,000 - 30,000
Footnotes
- PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's, The Greek Sale,16 November 2005, lot 38.
LITERATURE:
Jean-François Bonhomme, Ghika vu par Jean-François Bonhomme, Athens 1993, p. 117 (illustrated).
Bathed in light and conveying a sense of perpetual movement, this mesmerizing still life of silhouetted forms and rhythmic patterns speaks to us in a lyrical idiom of contentment and the joie de vivre. In an evenly illuminated plane defined by successive concentric circles, Ghika's wonderful and irresistible still-life objects float with graceful dance moves, celebrating the curvilinear and recalling the words of Pericles Yannopoulos, this theoretical forerunner of Greekness: "The Greek line creates beautiful, rounded shapes, occasionally soaring upwards with vigorous, adolescent agility only to return with a seagull's lightness to a gentle rhythm." As noted by still-life scholar Y. Kolokotronis, "Ghika revitalises the still life genre, delving deeper than any other artist into its relationship with the surrounding environment." 1
1. Y. Kolokotronis, Still Life in Modern Greek Art from the 19th Century to Date [in Greek], doctoral dissertation, Athens 1992, p. 103.
Category: Fine Art / Greek Art
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