Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas

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Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas (Greek: Νίκος Χατζηκυριάκος–Γκίκας; February 26, 1906 – September 3, 1994), also known as Nikos Ghika,[1] was a leading Greek painter, sculptor, engraver, writer and academic. He was a founding member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, International Association of Art Critics.[2]

He studied ancient and

cubist artist
.

His aim was to focus on the harmony and purity of Greek art and to deconstruct the Greek landscape and intense natural light into simple geometric shapes and interlocking planes.

His works are featured in the

Metropolitan Museum
of New York and in private collections worldwide.

Biography

Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas was born in

Picasso himself noticed and commented on the works of the young Greek artist. The following year in 1928 he held his first exhibition in Athens alongside sculptor Michael Tombros.[4]

In 1933 he organised in Athens the 4th International Architectural Symposium and presented in Paris at the Galeria Vavin-Raspail. In 1934 he arranged another exhibition of his sculptures in the Gallerie des Cahiers d' Art together with works from artists such as Sophie Taeuber-Arp[5] and in the international exhibitions of Paris and Venice. A year later in 1935 he shared an exhibition again with Michael Tombros along with painter Gounaro, an event which, just like his previous shared exhibit in 1928 considerably stirred the athenian art world.[4] Following this retrospective, between the years of 1936-1937 he collaborated with poet Papatzonis, architect Dimitris Pikionis and theatrical director Sokratis Karantinos for the release of Trito Mati (The Third Eye).[4] A periodical in which Avant-Garde sculptors, authors and painters whose work was not originally translated in Greek such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee was included.[4] In 1941 he was elected Professor of Drawing in the Architectural School of the National Technical University of Athens where he taught up unti 1958.[4] Five years after the commence of his career as a professor in 1946 he participated in an exhibition in London England of Greek Art at the Royal Academy where the same year the British Council in Athens arranged his first retrospective exhibition which contained 42 of his paintings.[4] In 1949 he formed, with other artists including Yiannis Moralis, Yannis Tsarouchis, Nikos Nikolaou, Nikos Engonopoulos and Panayiotis Tetsis, the "Armos" art group. In 1950 he represented Greece at the 25th Venice Biennale, where he exhibited 17 of his canvasses.[4]

Following that, he married Barbara Hutchinson, who had previously been married to Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild and to classicist Rex Warner in 1961 and in the years between 1950-1965 he help 12 one man exhibitions in cities and regions such as Geneva, London, Berlin, Paris, Athens and New York City where his work was displayed and presented by René Char.[4][6] Moreover, he arranged a further retrospective, this time containing a hundred of his paintings, at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, in 1968 and in 1970 he was awarded The First Prize in Fine Arts by the Academy of Athens (modern) which in 1973 nominated him to a full membership.[6] He held one man shows on five separate occasions between the years of 1972 and 1973, once in Milan, once in Paris, once in London and twice in Athens, where again, in [1973] the National Gallery of Athens initiated a series of exhibitions contains works from some of the largest Greek painters, with a large exhibition consisting of 164 works from Ghika.

In 1986 he became a member of the

Royal Academy of London
, his wife, Barbara, died in 1989.

He died on September 3, 1994, in Athens.

The tomb of the Ghikas family

Today in Greece he is celebrated as one of the most important modern Greek painters. His house has been converted to a museum and is being run by the Benaki Museum. In 2018, the British Museum hosted an exhibition[7] which focuses on the friendship of Ghika, the artist John Craxton, and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor; their shared love of Greece was fundamental to their work.

Aspirations

when he was younger, he dipped his toes at something approaching abstract art, after which he progressively abandoned his inclination to splinter his subject into separate components and reconstruct it based on his concept of plasticity.[8] Because of this he begins to slowly come to terms with all that is really around him.[8] This transformation of his art came about from more profound and deeply philosophical causes. His latest experience in plasticity and transgression with the rules of non-figurative painting are his way of responding to the need of reconstructing his work entirely and reassessing his own attitudes and values.[8]

A question that concerns us heavily today, which argues whether or not we can transform art into a game, a pastime, or is this amplification of the form and mass of objects, this elaborate and prestigious abstraction of their innermost being not merely a child’s game, is what he often seemed to ask to himself in attempting to resolve the creative indefiniteness of art. [9]

References

  1. ^ "Charmed lives in Greece; Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor 8 March – 15 July 2018". British Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  2. ^ Association of Greek Art Critics, International Association of Art Critics. "AICA-HELLAS History". Archived from the original on 2008-05-11.
  3. ^ a b c d GHIKA. ATHENS: ADAM EDITIONS. 1991. p. 218.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j GHIKA. ATHENS: ADAM EDITIONS. 1991. p. 219.
  5. ^ Ghika - The Atrist's Donation to the Ethniki Pinakothiki (in Greek). Athens: National Gallery of Greece. 1986.
  6. ^ a b GHIKA. Athens: ADAM EDITIOMS. 1991. p. 221.
  7. ^ "Charmed lives in Greece; Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor 8 March – 15 July 2018". British Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  8. ^ a b c GHIKA. Athens: ADAM EDITIONS. 1991. p. 11.
  9. ^ Zervos, Christian (1934). "The Aspirations Of Nikos Hadjikyriakos Ghika". Cashiers d'Art.

Further reading

External links

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