40. 40AR Nikos Engonopoulos (Greek, 1907-1985) Trois philosophes signé en grec et daté '37' (en bas à droite) huile sur toile 106 x 93cm (41 3/4 x 36 5/8in). Peint en 1937. signed in Greek and dated (lower right) oil on canvas Provenance The Artist's Estate. Private collection, Athens. Expositions Athens, Nicolas Calas residence, Exhibition of Paintings by Nikos Engonopoulos, 1939 (possibly). Venice, XXVII Esposizione Biennale Internationale d'Arte, Greek Pavilion, Nikos Engonopoulos, June 19 - October 17, 1954, no. 2 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, p. 294). Sao Paolo, Brazil, III Bienal de Sao Paolo, Museum de Arte Moderna, July-October 1955 (listed in the general exhibition catalogue, p. 161, no. 1). Littérature Fiche Descriptive des Oeuvres Pavillon Grec, Venice Biennale, 1954, handwritten list, p.5, no. 40. K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 204, p. 76 (shown in a 1954 photograph with the artist), p. 241 (illustrated), p. 409 (catalogued and illustrated). Nikos Engonopoulos, Painter and Poet, conference minutes, Benaki Museum, Athens 2010, p. 177, fn.18 (mentioned). Nikos Engonopoulos, exhibition catalogue, Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, 2017, p. 257 (shown in a 1954 photograph with the artist). A significant missing piece of 20th c. Greek art, discovered recently by Bonhams and returned to public view after nearly 70 years,1 this pioneering work—Engonopoulos's first surrealist oil—was shown in the 1954 Venice Biennale,2 where for the first time, Greece was represented by one artist alone. In Venice, Engonopoulos showed alongside such towering figures of modern art as Arp, Ernst, Miro, Klee, Bacon and Magritte, since the exhibition had requested participating countries to adhere to the theme of Surrealism. Prefacing the exhibition catalogue, Biennale's Secretary General R. Palluchini noted: "Greece devotes its entire pavilion to Engonopoulos, whose work certainly is a surprise to everybody." Here, the artist subverts—in a typical surrealist fashion—the conventional ways with which rational thought perceives the world by replacing the heads of the three philosophers with archetypal geometric forms. Paying homage to the great Cézanne who exhorted painters to depict reality in terms of simple geometric shapes and volumes, he finds in the cube, the sphere, and the triangle the underlying, basic structure of the world, the all-encompassing essential force that binds the universe. These archetypal forms echo the ideal world of Plato who considered them pure beauty and fundamental elements for building the world. Elemental and three-dimensional, these forms also seem like stemming from a Bauhaus workshop in the 1920s, forming an imaginary cultural bridge that spans the millennia. As noted by Walter Gropius, the great German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, these original geometric shapes are purely abstract entities that dash through time and all countries, ensuring validity in all human creations. The visual act, set against the schematised and unmistakably Engonopoulian formations of travelling clouds, takes place in a shallow stage-like space that heightens the overall sense of theatricality. Engonopoulos, who never hesitated to explore the correlations between theatrical and pictorial space and introduce the theatrical into his painting,3 has once said that "under the stage lights, with the most harmonious moves, in a coordinated whole, amidst colours and music, every human dream comes alive, flooding the soul with guileless joy, far from the obligations and obstacles of grim reality."4 Conceived on a human scale, this kind of contained setting that both frames and accentuates human activity, seems like a faithful emulation of Greece's natural environment. The lack of vast open spaces and supernatural landscapes whose sheer size nullifies the human scale, is a typically Greek element.5 Navigating the viewer to a magical world of poetic metaphor, a host of details trigger various associations ranging from Medieval and Renaissance times (the chequered tilework echoes similar motifs by Mantegna and Giovanni Antonio Fasolo) to Giorgio de Chirico's pittura metafisica (highlighted by the triangular shape used in constructing the philosopher's head). In the left middleground, the red figure carrying a heavy bag possibly alludes to the myth of Sisyphus and the philosophical theory that existence is absurd, while in the upper right corner, the tall buildings perched on a steep hill are reminiscent of similar structures in works by Parthenis and de Chirico. Although the unexpected staging of dream-like scenes is a fascinating feature of Engonopoulos's art, no less impressive is his handling of colour. The shimmering yellow, green and orange tunics worn by the three standing figures and the enamel-like blues and reds applied without tonal gradations, sparkle like rubies and emeralds, making the entire pictorial surface shine like a stained-glass window in a Gothic cathedral. 1 The painting remained accessible to scholarly research only though a black and while archival photograph published in the artist's catalogue raisonée (see Littérature). 2 Up until the mid-20th century the famous Venice Biennale was the only major artistic event worldwide. Especially for outlying countries like Greece, showing in Venice was extremely important on a national level and highly enviable on a personal one. 3 P. Rigopoulou, "Nikos Engonopoulos" in D. Tsouchlou-A.Bacharian, Stage-Setting in Modern Greek Theatre [in Greek], Athens 1985, p. 141. 4 Written in 1961 and reprinted in N. Engonopoulos, Works in Prose [in Greek], Ypsilon editions, Athens 1987, p. 30. 5 See S. Boulakian, "The Work of Nikos Engonopoulos" in Greek Painters - 20th Century[in Greek], Melissa editions, Athens 1974, p. 261.