Nikos Engonopoulos

(Greek, 1907-1985)

Nestor 71 x 78 cm.

Footnotes

Provenance
K. Ladopoulou, Athens.
Private collection, Athens.

Exhibited
Athens, Moraitis School Studies Society, Personal Exhibition, November 19 - December 19, 1976, no. 29.
Athens, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Nikos Engonopoulos, April 3-15, 1983, no. 40 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, p. 43).
Athens, Gallery "3", Nikos Engonopoulos Painting 1975-1985, November 4-30, 1985, no. 18.

Literature
The Greek Painters, vol. II, 20th Century, Melissa editions, Athens 1975, p. 262 (mentioned), p. 285, fig. 36 (illustrated).
S. Boulakian, Nikos Engonopoulos - The Greek Painters, Melissa editions, Athens 1975 (illustrated on the cover).
K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Mythology, Ypsilon editions, Athens 2006, no. 52, p. 118 (discussed), p. 119 (illustrated).
K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Son Univers Pictural, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonée, Benaki Museum, Athens 2007, no. 607, p. 303 (illustrated), p. 460 (illustrated).
N. Chaini, The Painting of Nikos Engonopoulos,, doctoral dissertation, National Technical University of Athens, 2007, p. 293 (discussed), p. 940 (mentioned), p. 961 (listed), p. 294, fig. 96 (illustrated).
Nikos Engonopoulos, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art - Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros 2017, p. 149 (mentioned).

Three standing nude male youths, perhaps warriors, listen respectfully to a gesturing man who seats at the edge of a pedestal holding a cane, while a guard with helmet and spear watches over the meeting, investing the whole scene with authority and significance. Based on the painting's title, the seated figure in a green tunic is Nestor,¹ the legendary king of Pylos, who seems to relate some story from his colourful life, echoing Picasso's Nestor's Tales from the Trojan War (1930), an oxygraph inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses.²

As a youth, Nestor was a fine warrior and a great athlete. Later on, succeeding Neleus as king of Pylos, he took part in the Trojan War, where he enjoyed his role as an elder statesman noted for wise counsel. In the Iliad he is "the sweet-voiced, clear-tongued speaker of the Pylians, whose voice, when he spoke, was sweeter than honey." One of the few Greek commanders to return safely home from Troy, wise, if garrulous, Nestor enjoyed prosperity for the rest of his life, habitually unleashing a stream of nostalgic reminiscences of the Trojan War and his long-ago exploits.³

Alluding to a heroic past drawn from the treasury of Greek mythology, Nestor reflects the artist's attitude towards painting as an ideal vehicle to probe into the world of Greekness and reinterpret a rich tradition in a modern and vigorous manner. As noted by art historian N. Loizidi, "Engonopoulos gave us a version of surrealism that is universal, but at the same time deeply rooted in Greekness".⁴

His persistence on indigenous cultural sources and experiences clearly indicates that while European surrealists used an irrational vocabulary to break free from the shackles of traditional conventions, Engonopoulos perceived tradition as a connecting cultural link.⁵ As noted by Athens National Gallery Director M. Lambraki-Plaka, his figures may draw their origin from Giorgio de Chirico's phantom-like mannequins "but they differ radically. Elegant, slender and stalk-like, with an athletic built and pronounced limb joints, Engonopoulos's figures are unmistakably Greek, reminiscent of the Minoans immortalized on the Knossos frescoes and the early kouroi, while alluding to the tall and slender formula of the Byzantine saints also evident in El Greco's work."<sup>6

1</sup> Nestor and the helmeted guard wear a ring on their index finger, essentially identifying with Engonopoulos himself who used to wear a characteristic ring on the same finger. See D. Menti, Faces and Masks [in Greek], Gutenberg publ., Athens 2007, pp. 135-136, note 34. See also Chartis review, no. 25/26, November 1988, p. 172.
² See K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Nikos Engonopoulos, Mythology, Ypsilon editions, Athens 2006, no. 52, p. 118.
³ See D. Stuttard, Greek Mythology, Thames & Hudson, London, 2016, pp. 90-93.
⁴ N. Loizidi, Surrealism in Modern Greek Art, the Case of Nikos Engonopoulos [in Greek], Nefeli publ. Athens 1984, p. 181.
⁵ See N. Loizidi, "The Indigenous Surrealism of Nikos Engonopoulos" [in Greek], To Vima daily - Nees Epoches, 21.10.2007, p. A57.
⁶ M. Lambraki-Plaka "The Timeless Pantheon of Nikos Engonopoulos" [in Greek], Filologiki quarterly, no. 101, October-November-December 2007, p. 9.