1. 1AR Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (Greek, 1906-1994) Athènes signé et daté 'Ghika 75' (en bas à gauche) tempera sur papier marouflé sur toile 66 x 91.5cm (26 x 36in). Peint en 1975. signed and dated (lower left) tempera on paper laid on canvas Provenance Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens. Private collection, Athens. Expositions Athens, Iolas-Zoumboulakis Gallery, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, December 10, 1976 - January 15, 1977, no. 4 (listed in the exhibition leaflet). Littérature Kathimerini newspaper, December 12, 1976. H. Livas, Contemporary Greek Artists, Vantage Press, New York 1993, p. 5 (discussed). K.C. Valkana, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, His Painting Oeuvre, Benaki Museum, Athens 2011, p. 234 (discussed and illustrated, fig. 19). A mesmerising cubist-like townscape displaying an architectural network of close-knit rhythmical structures, fragmented interlocking planes, and spatially distorted labyrinthine grids, Athènes showcases Ghika's belief that "the character of the Greek schema, whether in antiquity, the Byzantine era or folk art, is by and large geometric."1 The rhythmically developed and spatially distorted depictions of Byzantine towns—used as backdrops for religious subjects in much of icon painting—are here pushed to a relentless extreme, transformed into a dense web of lines, angles, and curves. As the schematic undulations of the townscape ascend in petrified waves of subdued colour, the horizontal tilts into the vertical, echoing the Byzantine backgrounds that tend to unfold upwards instead of receding in depth. As noted by Professor M. Michelis, "Ghika's vision is akin to the Byzantine mosaics of the Chora Monastery."2 Discussing the work, art critic H. Livas notes: "I'll record what Ghika told me—that even if the subject of his painting is not Greek, its soul always is. Yet, even when the subject is Greek, the spirit of the painting transcends the country and carries us into a new and different world. I take, as example, the painting Athènes, a geometric view of the city that makes it look filled with modern pyramids and Mayan temples. The pyramid has always been one of his favourite forms; I suspect because it suggests mystery; and, modern non- fiction tells us that the pyramid shape can cause miraculous preservation and even regeneration to objects, organic materials, and even people inside it. Ghika's Truncated pyramids of 1963 and the Pyramid triptych of 1965, lift us also to mysterious worlds that we can't quite identify with the comfortable and the familiar."3 1 N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, "On Greek Art" [in Greek], Neon Kratos journal, no. 5, January 1938. 2 M. Michelis, "N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika" [in Greek], Zygos magazine, no. 58, September 1960, p. 10. 3 H. Livas, Contemporary Greek Artists, Vantage Press, New York 1993, p. 5.