44 - NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS (1907–1985)

NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS (1907–1985) Μuse Signed in Greek and dated “69” (lower right) Oil on canvas 30.5 x 21 cm. (12.01 × 8.27 in.) Painted in 1969. oil on canvas Footnotes: Provenance Private collection, Athens. Literature K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, His Pictorial Universe, exhibition catalog and catalog raisonné, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 951, pp. 359, 502 (cataloged and illustrated). Nikos Engonopoulos, Painter and Poet, conference proceedings, Benaki Museum, Athens 2010, p. 84 (mentioned). E. Georgiadou-Kountoura, *On Women, Gender Identities, and Defenceless Loves*, Nefeli Editions, Athens 2019, p. 74 (mentioned). Elegant, mysterious, and seductive, Engonopoulos’s surrealist muse invites the viewer to explore the magic of poetic metaphor and question the conventional ways in which the rational mind perceives the world. The dazzling green tunic that partially covers her body has completely replaced her head, echoing the famous mourning monks by the late Gothic sculptor Klaus Sluter, who are depicted with their faces entirely concealed beneath the sweeping folds of their heavy hoods.1 Portrayed with voluptuous curves and boldly rendered nipples, the muse stands before a stone wall with an opening covered by a pleated curtain—one of Engonopoulos’s characteristic motifs drawn from the Byzantine pictorial tradition, where such curtains, usually bright red in color, were used in depictions of interior spaces.2 Applied side by side and handled with deliberate boldness, the enamel-like red of the curtain and the dazzling green of the tunic create a festive ritual of pure color, which always played a leading role in the artist’s compositions. Visual depictions of the Muse run throughout Engonopoulos’s oeuvre, beginning in 1938 with his celebrated *Poet and Muse* and culminating in 1984 with his final work, *Mediterranean Muse*. Always beautiful, seductive, and full of life, the female form was a constant source of inspiration, a fundamental subject in both his painting and poetry. As noted by Professor Helena Badell, “throughout Engonopoulos’s dual expression in painting and poetry, woman is elevated to the status of a savior who breathes life into the artist. Whereas Cézanne maintains that ‘the artist desires to rise, but the man must remain obscure,’ for Engonopoulos, woman attains the heights of not only art, but life itself.”3 In a similar vein, art historian Maria Koutsomalli-Moreau notes that “for a painter who never worked from nature, who never had a model sit for him, he seems nevertheless to know all the secrets of his feminine alter ego. Her presence in his work brings to it a sense of harmony, sensuality, and gentleness.”4 1. See E. Benisi, Nikos Engonopoulos and Cityscapes [in Greek], doctoral dissertation, Athens 2002, p. 117, fn. 78. 2. Ibid., p. 161. 3. H. Badell, “The Women Poet Nikos Engonopoulos Loved” [in Greek], Lexi magazine, no. 179, January–March 2004, p. 138. 4. M. Koutsomalli-Moreau in *Nikos Engonopoulos*, exhibition catalog, Museum of Contemporary Art – Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros 2017, p. 126. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: AR AR Items subject to the artist’s resale royalty, payable by the buyer. For further information on this lot, please visit Bonhams.com