76 - GEORGE RORRIS (born 1963)

GEORGE RORRIS (born 1963) Nude Posing in the Studio signed in Greek and dated “2001” (lower right) oil on canvas 106 x 146 cm (41.73 × 57.48 in.) oil on canvas Footnotes: Provenance Private collection. Literature M. Koutsomallis-Moreau, George Rorris, the Nobleness of Purity, exhibition catalog, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros, 2001, p. 279 (shown in a photograph of the artist at work). In 2001, when the work was painted, Rorris received the Academy of Athens Award for Young Painters Under the Age of Forty. That same year, he began painting almost exclusively female nudes, a subject he had not taken up since 1991. “I paint solely from nature and always with live models. Why do I paint women? Well, because what interests me is alterity—the unknown world of that other who is called a woman. It holds a great fascination for me because it is something I do not know, something that is a mystery to me. I want the women I paint to be contemporary, although I’m convinced that they strongly resemble women of the 1930s—and this is despite my having no particular knowledge of that generation. In any case, I hope the way I portray them is contemporary.”1 Here, a young woman sleeps naked on a salmon-colored loveseat in the center of the picture, her thighs highlighted within an otherwise subdued composition. Behind her is a blank wall marked with drips of black paint and a dark panel next to a window with painted-over panes. A shabby couch on the right, upholstered in slate-blue fabric and laden with books and catalogs, completes the arrangement. Consequently, the painting becomes a portrait not only of the woman depicted but also of the space surrounding her—reminiscent of Lucian Freud’s intricate interiors. Yet, despite the beautiful central subject, the true star of the picture is the gray-brown floor. Its steeply receding wooden planks evoke the heavily textured fields of Anselm Kiefer, transforming the studio floor into a psychologically acute landscape. In the foreword to the catalog of the artist’s 2004 exhibition at the Foundation for Hellenic Culture in New York, Athens National Gallery Director M. Lambraki-Plaka noted that Rorris’s paintings “reveal the passions of humanity through the passions of the pictorial material.” The viewer feels as though they are actually entering the space where the artist works, even stepping on the time-worn, paint-splattered floorboards. The color, rich yet delicate, shifts subtly toward shades of gray, only to suddenly rise in a controlled, bright crescendo. The brushwork—sometimes gentle in the shadows, sometimes dense, with profusion and intensity.”2 Poet Y. Kondos added a lyrical dimension: “Rorris’s enclosed rooms seek to approach time but lose their way. However, the colors find paths, tell stories, and speak through silence. A young woman, perhaps a girl, is sleeping; the floor and walls are a jumble of colors. The window is obscured by a brown hue that blocks all communication with the outside world. On a deeper level, the subject of Rorris’s painting is light—light in all its nuances of darkness and surprise.'3 1. M. Koutsomallis-Moreau, George Rorris, the Nobleness of Purity, exhibition catalog, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros, 2001, p. 296. See also interview with M. Kokkini [in Greek], Lifo magazine, November 10, 2019. 2, 3. Rorris, Painting 1996–2003, exhibition catalog, Foundation for Hellenic Culture, New York, 2004, pp. 21, 23. 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