LOT DETAILS
Materials:
oil on canvas
Measurements:
21.65 in. (55.00 cm.) (height) by 17.72 in. (45.00 cm.) (width)
Markings:
signed in Greek and dated '77' (lower right)
Exhibited:
Athens, Goethe-Institute, Imagination and Reality, January 16-31, 1978.,Athens, 3 Gallery, Nikos Engonopoulos, retrospective exhibition, March 23 - April 15, 1981, no. 23 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).,Athens, National Gallery - A. Soutzos Museum, Nikos Engonopoulos, retrospective exhibition, April 3-15, 1983, no. 98 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, p. 45).,Thessaloniki, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Topos: Engonopoulos, May 18 - July 29, 2007, no. 11 (discussed and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, pp. 16-17).,Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation,Nikos Engonopoulos, 2017 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 131)
Literature:
N. Engonopoulos, In the Vale of Roseries, Ikaros editions, 1978, p. 159 (illustrated).,Tachydromos magazine, no. 1508, April 7, 1983, p. 28 (full page illustration).,Eleftherotypia daily, June 6, 1996.,E. Benisi, Nikos Engonopoulos and Cityscapes, doctoral dissertation, University of Athens, 2006, no. 116, pp. 149-150 (discussed), p. 150b (illustrated).,Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 1072, p. 198 (illustrated), p. 378 (illustrated), p. 515 (illustrated).,N. Chaini, The Painting of Nikos Engonopoulos, doctoral dissertation, National Technical University of Athens, 2007, no. 312, p. 736 (discussed), p. 737 (illustrated).,D. Menti, Faces and Masks, Gutenberg editions, Athens 2007, pp. 173-174 (discussed).,Filologiki magazine, no. 101, October-November-December 2007, p. 48 (referred).,N. Engonopoulos, Love is the Only Way, National Book Centre of Greece, Athens 2007, p. 63 (illustrated).,O. Tachopoulou, Modernist Primitivism, Surrealist Versions in the Poetic Work of Nikos Engonopoulos, Nefeli editions, Athens 2009, p. 337-338 (discussed), no. 7 (illustrated).,In 1978, Nikos Engonopoulos, a leading figure of 20th c. surrealist art and , published his poetry collection In the Vale of Roseries, which included the poem Adelaїs of the Hierophants, accompanied by an illustration of his 1977 painting Adelaїs the Great High-Priestess of Fetishism. While the poem emphasizes the multi-faceted vocabulary of the eyes, the picture features an amputated woman-mannequin with no eyes-not even a face-except for a black carnival mask, sensual clothing and accessories. Beside her, the also amputated torso of a male nude draws attention to the obvious similarities and differences between the two figures. It seems that one of the things they share is a rather detached and sagacious approach towards life, articulated in the poem: Is life, knowledge / the knowledge of life (of eyes as always) / food for a gentle dream, / or perhaps delirium? This question echoes the riddle of the Sphinx, the answer to which revealed Oedipus's understanding of the nature of human existence, becoming in surrealist hands an inquiry into complex psychological issues2 (compare N. Engonopoulos, Rien dans la vien'est une énigme, Bonhams Greek Sale, 25/11/2014, lot 15)
Provenance:
Private collection, Athens