Lot 30AR
Diamantis Diamantopoulos(Greek, 1914-1995)Girl at the loom 150 x 99.5 cm.
18 November 2020, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£25,000 - £35,000
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Diamantis Diamantopoulos (Greek, 1914-1995)
Girl at the loom
signed in Greek (lower right)
oil on hardboard
150 x 99.5 cm.
Painted c. 1949-1978.
signed in Greek (lower right)
oil on hardboard
150 x 99.5 cm.
Painted c. 1949-1978.
Footnotes
Exhibited
Athens, Ora Art and Culture Centre, Diamantis Diamantopoulos, January 27 - February 12, 1975.
Athens, National Gallery - A. Soutzos Museum, Diamantis Diamantopoulos, March 1978, no. 223 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
Literature
Zygos magazine, no. 12, January-February 1975, p. 23 (illustrated).
Lexi magazine, no. 101, January-February 1991, p. 25, detail, (illustrated).
P. Kounenaki, Diamantopoulos, K. Adam editions, Athens 2005, p. 146 (illustrated).
Diamantis Diamantopoulos, Contemporary Greek Artists series, Ta Nea editions, Athens 2007, p. 111 (illustrated).
Magnificent in its simple grandeur, this striking canvas represents the pinnacle of the artist's figurative oeuvre. Radically simplified by means of rich form, expressive line and dazzling, paganistic colour, and captured in sharp profile reminiscent of ancient Greek vase painting or relief sculpture, the robust figure of a young woman relies on purely pictorial means to impart a deep sense of monumentality and inner dignity. Her commanding presence seems to extend beyond the boundaries of the canvas, while the apt use of her mirror image on the upper left provides a sense of spatial depth.
Emphasizing the immediacy and blooming physicality of the female figure with bold sculptural forms and focusing on general types rather than specific individual features, Diamantopoulos treats his subject as an archetypal image that ventures beyond the typically Greek towards the collective and universal.
Prefacing the artist's participation in the 1982 Venice Biennale, art critic V. Spiliadi noted: "Although stemming from the very heart of his homeland, his art transcends the culturally specific to formulate an artistic statement that is valid beyond the confines of time and space. Much more than merely reflecting the artist's subjective sentiments, his figures allude to collective experiences, becoming generally recognizable and easily decipherable symbols."1
1 V. Spiliadi, "Diamantis Diamantopoulos, Painter" in Hellas - Biennale Venezia 1982, exhibition catalogue, Greek Ministry of Culture, Athens 1982.