75. 75AR Nikos Engonopoulos (Greek, 1907-1985) Nu signé en grec et daté '41' (en bas à droite) huile sur toile 100 x 120cm (39 3/8 x 47 1/4in). Peint en 1941. signed and dated (lower right) oil on canvas Provenance V. Embeirikos collection, Athens. Private collection, Athens. Expositions Athens, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Nikos Engonopoulos retrospective exhibition, April 3-15, 1983, no. 13 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, p. 42). Littérature Kathimerini newspaper, February 12, 1989 (illustrated). Sima magazine, no. 1, March-April 1991, p. 62 (listed with comment). K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 297, p. 255 (illustrated), p. 423 (catalogued and illustrated). To Vima newspaper, October 21, 2007, p. A55 (illustrated). D. Connolly ed., Nikos Engonopoulos, The Beauty of a Greek, Ypsilon editions, Athens 2007, p. btw 64-65 (illustrated). Nikos Engonopoulos, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros 2017, p/ 125, fn. 3 (mentioned). I love the bodies of women. With their breasts they eliminate our loneliness. Nikos Engonopoulos Always beautiful, seductive and full of life, the female form was a constant source of inspiration throughout Engonopoulos's career, a fundamental subject in both his painting and poetry. Here, set in a luminous interior against a typically Greek island townscape crowned by the unmistakably Engonopoulean formations of travelling clouds, a voluptuous female nude reclines languidly on a sofa holding a red bud in her left hand (Engonopoulos adored flowers and especially roses) and looking towards a still-life with luscious fruit that discreetly heightens the sensuality of the scene. "I love the nude body more than the face" the artist noted in an interview. "I love it because it is the chalice of life. As expressive as life is, even when tired. As sparkling as life is, when young."1 Equally brilliant is the colour, a key element throughout Engonopoulos' career. Applied side by side, the enamel-like reds and blues invite the viewer to a festive ritual of pure colour. "Engonopoulos is a wizard with colour, which he handles with conscious daring, unique aptitude and undisputed love."2 As Errieti Engonopoulou, his daughter, notes, "for him each colour has its own value, its own voice"3; much the same as in Byzantine art, which Engonopoulos always considered the art form Greeks most closely relate to.4 1 Apogevmatini newspaper, August 2, 1969. 2 S. Boulakian, "The Work of Nikos Engonopoulos" in Greek Painters-20th Century [in Greek], Melissa publ., Athens 1974, p. 262. 3 E. Engonopoulou, "Freedom and Discipline" in Nikos Engonopoulos, The Painter and the Poe, [in Greek], Kathimerini newspaper, Epta Imeres, May 25, 1997, p. 23. 4 See Epitheorisi Technis magazine, March 1963, no.99, pp. 193-197.