72. 72AR Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (Greek, 1906-1994) Jardin à Londres signé et daté 'Ghika/London/68' (en bas à droite) gouache sur papier 57 x 39cm (22 7/16 x 15 3/8in). Peint en 1968. Peint et inscrit avec le poème 'ΕΝ ΤΟ ΜHΝΙ ΑΘΥΡ' de Constantin Cavafy (au revers). signed and dated (lower right) gouache on paper Painted and inscribed with the poem by Cavafy (on the reverse) Provenance Private collection, Athens. Imbued with the breath of the earth and charged with poetic feeling and Dionysian energy, an orchestrated nexus of undulating lines and spiralling curves sweeps the pictorial surface into a cosmogonic whirlpool. Branches, leaves, thistles and thorns spin and swirl around agile webs so that the whole composition is immersed in a constantly changing and revived atmosphere. Ghika's charismatic reflections and free use of colour make up a luminous and cheerful work, which speaks about the artist's lifelong fascination with the miracle of light and the magic of painting. In the 1960s, Ghika's angular geometry was gradually replaced by a world subject to natural forces. Inspired perhaps by Japanese calligraphy's constant flow of brush and pen, the artist explored the landscape's constant movement and dynamic elusiveness, expressing "the most arcane nuances of the mystery of natural phenomena."1 Imbued with meditative silence and elegiac feeling, the composition on the verso is inspired by C.P. Cavafy's poem "In the Month of Athyr"2, recalling the artist's legendary illustrations for the 1966 Ikaros edition of Cavafy's poems. 1 Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, From the East [in Greek], Athens 1989, p. 43. 2 In the Egyptian calendar the month of Athyr (the goddess of carnal love) corresponded to October-November. The poem was written and published in March 1917. (See C.P. Cavafy Collected Poems, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1975, pp. 74, 218).