Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Athens.

Littérature
K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 911, p. 353 (illustrated), p. 497-498 (catalogued), p. 498 (illustrated).


I had the good fortune to apprentice
under Constantinos Parthenis.
Working with him I studied nature and
grasped the importance of line and colour.
N. Engonopoulos¹

An unconventional, modern-day Orpheus, with cool sunglasses and rock-star hairstyle in a dazzlingly yellow chlamys, plays his lyre standing between a tall building that echoes similar structures in works by C. Parthenis² and a robust tree trunk that conveys an equally commanding presence. The scene is crowned by two Greek flags, fluttering in the morning breeze against a luminous sky, and a set of the artist's signature clouds³ traveling over a dazzling, enamel-blue sea.

Orpheus, the archetype of the poet as liberator and creator, held a particular fascination for Engonopoulos, who depicted him many times over a period of more than thirty years, often adopting him as his own persona. Lean and elegant, he is reminiscent of the Minoans immortalised on the Knossos frescoes while alluding to the tall and slender formula of the Byzantine saints also evident in El Greco's work.⁴ Parhenis, the artist's revered teacher at the Athens School of Fine Arts, was extensively involved with the hero.

Implementing unexpected juxtapositions and undermining accepted norms of narrative cohesion, the artist creates a dreamlike atmosphere, introducing the viewer to an enigmatic world of poetic metaphor. The coexistence of mythical past and modern reality sets forth the main aesthetic and ideological preoccupations of the 1930s generation and faithfully reflects the artist's resolve to probe into the inner world of Greekness. He transports us from ancient/mythical times to the present say, using cross-temporal iconographic leaps that were common during the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine eras in both miniature manuscripts and narthex decoration.⁵

This persistence on indigenous cultural experiences combined with a deep sense for history clearly indicates that "while European surrealists used an irrational vocabulary to break free from the shackles of traditional conventions, Engonopoulos perceived tradition as a 'connecting link' that would restore cultural continuity."⁶ As perceptively noted by art historian N. Loizidi, "Engonopoulos formulated a new mythology, giving us some imaginative and creatively unorthodox interpretations of Greek myths enriched by the 'objective humour' and method of irrational surrealist expression."<sup>7

1</sup> N. Engonopoulos, as quoted in Epitheorisi Technis magazine, March 1963, pp. 193-197.
² See E. Benisi, Nikos Engonopoulos and Cityscapes [in Greek], doctoral dissertation, vo. 1, Athens 2002, p. 79
³ The travelling clouds seen through the rectangular opening on the background wall recall the verses from the artist's poem Orpheus: once - while the sun / was setting - / he noticed up in the sky's blue / enchanting oblong / clouds / - about which in Kavouri a gendarme / as if repentant once exclaimed: / "lo and behold, Engonopoulos's clouds!"
⁴ See M. Lambraki-Plaka "The Timeless Pantheon of Nikos Engonopoulos" [in Greek], Filologiki quarterly, no. 101, October-November-December 2007, p. 9.
⁵ See D. Vlachodimos, Reading the Past in Engonopoulos [in Greek], Indiktos publ., Athens 2006, p. 228.
⁶ N. Loizidi, "The Indigenous Surrealism of Nikos Engonopoulos" [in Greek], To Vima daily - Nees Epoches, 21.10.2007, p. A57.
⁷ N. Loizidi, Surrealism in Modern Greek Art, the Case of Nikos Engonopoulos [in Greek], Nefeli publ. Athens 1984, p. 144.