44. 44AR NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS (1907-1985) Art & décoration

Description

44. 44AR NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS (1907-1985) Μuse signé en grec et daté « 69 » (en bas à droite) huile sur toile 30,5 x 21 cm. (12.01 × 8.27 in.) Peint en 1969. Provenance Private collection, Athens. Literature K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 951, pp. 359, 502 (catalogued and illustrated). Nikos Engonopoulos, Painter and Poet, conference minutes, Benaki Museum, Athens 2010, p. 84 (mentioned). E. Georgiadou-Kountoura, On Women, Gender Identities and Defenceless Loves, Nefeli editions, Athens 2019, p. 74 (mentioned). Elegant, mysterious, and seductive, Engonopoulos's surrealist muse invites the viewer to explore the magic of poetic metaphor and question the conventional ways in which the rational mind perceives the world. The dazzling green tunic that partially covers her body has totally replaced her head, echoing the famous mourning monks by the late gothic sculptor Klaus Sluter who are shown with completely concealed faces under the sweeping folds of their heavy hoods.1 Portrayed with voluptuous curves and daringly rendered nipples, the muse is standing before a stone wall with an opening covered by a pleated curtain, one of Engonopoulos's characteristic motifs drawn from the Byzantine pictorial tradition where such curtains, usually bright red in colour, were used in representations of interior spaces.2 Applied side by side and handled with conscious daring, the enamel-like red of the curtain and the dazzling green of the tunic set up a festive ritual of pure colour, which always played a leading role in the artist's compositions. Visual depictions of the Muse weave through Engonopoulos's oeuvre, beginning in 1938 with his celebrated Poet and Muse and culminating in 1984 with his valedictory work, Mediterranean Muse. Always beautiful, seductive and full of life, the female form was a constant source of inspiration, a fundamental subject in both his painting and poetry. As noted by Professor Helena Badell, "throughout Engonopoulos's dual expression in painting and poetry, woman is elevated to the status of a saviour who breathes life into the artist. Whereas Cézanne holds that l'artiste désire s'élever, mais l'homme doit rester obscur, for Engonopoulos, woman attains the heights of not only art, but life itself."3 In a similar vein, art historian Maria Koutsomalli-Moreau notes that "for a painter who never worked from nature, who never had a model sit for him, he seems nevertheless to know all the secrets of his feminine alter ego. Her presence in his work brings to it a feeling of harmony, sensuality and gentleness."4 1 : See E. Benisi, Nikos Engonopoulos and Cityscapes [in Greek], doctoral dissertation, Athens 2002, p. 117, fn. 78. 2 : Ibid, p. 161. 3 : H. Badell, "The Women Poet Nikos Engonopoulos Loved" [in Greek], Lexi magazine, no. 179, January-March 2004, p. 138. 4 : M. Koutsomalli-Moreau in Nikos Engonopoulos, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros 2017, p. 126.