Under the Hammer

Spanning the mid-19th century to the present day, Bonhams' Greek Art sales offer a unique perspective on the modern history of a country known mostly for its ancient past.

We hold two Greek Art auctions each year in London, which include works by Greek and European artists dating from the late 18th century to the present day. Over the years, we have become leading experts in this specialist field, achieving some record breaking results for artists such as Nicholaos Gysis, Constantinos Volanakis, Yiannis Moralis, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika and Yiannis Tsarouchis.

Ahead of The Greek Sale on 18 November, Anastasia Orfanidou, our Greek Art Specialist, selects her top picks.

Anastasia Orfanidou, Greek Art Specialist

Lot 104

Theodoros Stamos
Delphic Sun-Box #2, 1968

Theodoros Stamos is one of the youngest painters of the original group of abstract expressionist painters (the so-called "Irascibles"), which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. His Sun-Box series began in 1962 and was defined by broad areas of flat colour delineated by slim lines and geometrical shapes; the effect of such imagery is subtle and almost meditative. Delphic Sun-Box is a great example of this series of great scale, quality and provenance. Painted in a colour field manner, the particular colour combination make us reminiscent of warm Greek sunsets.

Lot 3

Yiannis Tsarouchis
Portrait of a Young Man

Portrait of a Young Man epitomizes Tsarouchis' signature subject matter of the male figure whilst also successfully illustrating the painterly manners that defined him as one of the most prolific Modern Greek artists.

Portrayed in modern realism, earthy colours and confident brushwork, the direct but soft stare and the informal, relaxed posture of the young male conveys a captivating immediacy that inspires feelings of familiarity, vulnerability and trust. The sitter’s masculine identity is lost only to be transformed into an allusion of a national identity, that of the Modern Greek man. As noted by Tsarouchis himself: "to speak of the representation of man in Greek art is superfluous because whatever great Greek art achieved through the centuries it was with man as its subject. I think of the Kouroi, the Apollos and the incomparable icons of Christ. The study of the male figures helped me understand what is emphatically called today national identity."

Lot 4

Constantinos Volanakis
Debarking

A towering figure in the history of Greek marine painting, Volanakis studied in Munich under Karl von Piloty and made the Bavarian capital his home for nearly 20 years, returning to Athens in 1883. Influenced by 17th century Dutch masters and the Italians Canaletto and Guardi, he paid meticulous attention to detail and the chromatic harmony of his many compositions of naval battle scenes, ships in port and harbour life.

Striking in quality and significant in value, Debarking successfully illustrates such artistic qualities. What distinguishes this lot is the intensity and energy that it carries. Bathed in a misty veil that charges the picture with a dramatic intensity, the imposing and detailed portrayal of the sea vessel whose perspective in relation to the rest of the composition crowns him the as a Master of the turbulent sea, the detail of the passenger’s extended arm, perfectly orchestrate the monumental moment of the depicted arrival.

Lot 24

Constantinos Parthenis
Prosperity

In 1940, Parthenis, regarded as one of the greatest living Greek painters and Father of Greek Impressionism, was commissioned to provide twelve paintings to decorate a room on the first floor of the Athens City Hall. He was to be paid the vast – at the time – fee of 800,000 drachmas. The painter produced the canvases, but because of the outbreak of war and the German occupation of Greece, the Municipality was unable to pay. In the early 1950s, the Mayor of Athens proposed to revive the commission on the original terms. By then, however, the drachma had lost much of its pre-war value. Parthenis saw the offer as an insult and the paintings remained in his studio until his death in 1967.

Prosperity represents one of the twelve aforementioned allegorical works that were produced alongside Double Axes, Harmony and Angel/Discipline. Monumental in quality and value, these well documented works render all the compositional elements of the Parthenis distinct formal vocabulary: limited palette, dematerialised shapes, masterful design and dilute, translucent application of paint.

Lot 38

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Landscape

Niko Ghika is internationally acknowledged as one of the most significant modern Greek painters. More specifically, his works are featured in the National Gallery (Athens), the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of New York and in private collections worldwide. His close friendship with Patrick Leigh Famor and John Craxton has been a matter of further examination and discussion in exhibitions of international recognition.

Landscape, 1971 showcases Ghika’s mastery in creating his own rich visual and stylistic vocabulary; a harmoniously balanced universe influenced by Cezanne and the Cubists (note the fractured planes and the spatial awareness in depicting multiple angles simultaneously) but ultimately connected to the unique light and landscape of his native land, Greece. Landscape has been in a private collection since 1971, the year of its execution, and it is the first time to ever be exhibited or presented in the art market.

Anastasia Orfanidou is a Greek Art Specialist in London. She can be reached at anastasia.orfanidou@bonhams.com.