Footnotes

Provenance
G. Pikoulis collection, Athens.
I. Nikolaidis collection, Athens.
N. Petsalis-Diomidis collection, Athens.
Private collection, Athens.

Exposé
Athens, To Trito Mati gallery, May 1977.

Littérature
To Trito Mati magazine, no. 1, May 1977, no. 54 (illustrated).
N. Petsalis-Diomidis, Ghika 1921-1940, Athens 1979, no. 58, p. 93 (mentioned), p. 95 (discussed), pp. 69, 132 (illustrated).
J.P. de Rycke, N.P. Paissios, Ghika and the Avant-Garde in Interwar Europe, Benaki Museum - N.H. Ghika Gallery, Ephesos editions, Athens 2004, no. 29, pp. 54, 56 (discussed), p. 56 (illustrated).
E. Mystakas, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika and Space in his Painting, doctoral dissertation, Athens, 2005, fig. 30, p. 309 (catalogued), p. 156 (discussed), p. 159 (illustrated).
K.C. Valkana, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, His Painting Oeuvre, doctoral dissertation, Athens, 2006, pp. 72-73 (discussed), fig. 74 (illustrated).
K.C. Valkana, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, His Painting Oeuvre, Benaki Museum edition, Athens 2011, fig. 44, p. 54 (discussed), p. 55 (illustrated).


"In the delectable The Square, Keramikos, a twilight view of an expanse of gentle topographical curves set within a group of neatly scattered dwellings, Ghika presents the simple, good-natured life of its inhabitants, occupied with their various activities, in a folk vein that harks back to the roots of the Greek artistic tradition. In its tonal sweetness and naiveté of touch, this work also recalls certain paintings by Henri Rousseau."¹

In this panoramic view of the quaint Athenian neighbourhood of Keramikos, the cluster of buildings dominating the centre of the painting, reminiscent of Galanis's or Braque's cube-like structures or even Quattrocento and Byzantine town depictions, is one of the artist's most characteristic iconographical elements from that period. As noted by Professor C. Christou, "in the 1927-1929 period one of the issues taken up in Ghika's paintings seems to be the organisation of space as indicated by his predilection for architectural themes always treated with a disciplined design, interwoven planes and almost classicist purity of colour."²

Of particular interest is also the woman leaning out of the window on the left flanked by open shutters, a subject the artist worked on in independent compositions in 1927, and the two figures on the right sitting around the ubiquitous round metal table of the traditional Greek coffee shop, a cornerstone of Athenian urban culture, whose enchanting allure was captured in works by S. Vassiliou, Y. Moralis, N. Ghika and other exponents of the thirties generation.

¹ J.P. de Rycke, N.P. Paissios, Ghika and the Avant-Garde in Interwar Europe, Benaki Museum - N.H. Ghika Gallery, Ephesos editions, Athens 2004, p. 54.
² C. Christou, "Nikolis Hadjikyriakos-Ghika" [in Greek] in In Memory of N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, exhibition catalogue, Academy of Athens, Athens 1995, p. 12.