Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906-1994) * Escarpments... Lot 19

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906-1994) * Escarpments signé et daté ‘GHIKA 59' (en bas à droite) huile sur toile 33 x 47cm (13 x 18 1/2in). signed and dated (lower right) oil on canvas £19000-24000 Provenance Lady Nöel Evelyn ‘Peter' Norton, London. Thence by descent to the present owner. Exposé Athens, Benaki Museum, N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, the Apollonian/the Dionysian, November 22,2006/January 15,2007, no. 215 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 219). Littérature K.C. Valkana, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, His Painting Oeuvre, Benaki Museum, Athens 2011, p. 188 (mentioned), p. 193 (illustrated). Imbued with the breath of the earth and the refractions of Greek light, Escarpments is a captivating work of dynamic lines, lush colours and explosive forms that spin and swirl around agile webs, so that the whole composition seems like an ever-growing organism immersed in a constantly changing and revived atmosphere.1 Trees, branches, leaves, bushes and flowers are set in motion, engaged in a perpetual Dionysian dance, while the crooked stone walls that inform so much of the Greek insular landscape and rank among the painter's signature subjects, emerge like ancient ruins from the luxuriant flora. 1 See D. Iliopoulou-Rogan, N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, the Apollonian-the Dionysian, exhibition catalogue, Benaki Museum, Athens2006, p. 52.