“Nikos Engonopoulos, Orpheus of Surrealism”. From the Onassis Collection to the Bassilis & Marina Theocharakis Foundation until 19.06.22

“If I was asked who is the absolute surrealist for me, Greek or foreigner, I would definitely respond Nikos Engonopoulos,” states the byzantinologist and historian Helene Glykatzi-Ahrweiler in the catalog of the new exhibition at the B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation, “Nikos Engonopoulos, Orpheus of Surrealism.”

The exhibition features more that 148 artworks borrowed from the Onassis Collection, the Alpha Bank Art Collection, the Teloglion Foundation of Art – AUTH collection, the Municipal Art Gallery of Rhodes, the Leventis Gallery, as well as from private collections.

Thirty-seven years after Nikos Engonopoulos’ death, the B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation honors the great painter with a complete retrospective exhibition, paying tribute to the mystic universe of one of the most influential and uncompromising members of the Generation of the ’30s. Notable artworks, including “Hermes, Orpheus and Eurydice, 1949”, “Argo, 1948”, “Orpheus, 1957”, “The incorruptibles, 1967”, “The painter and his model, 1970”, “Orpheus, 1968”, “Scène homérique avec le héros/Scène homérique: épisode de la guerre de Troie, 1938”, “Olympia, 1970”, “Mercurio Bua, 1971”, “Nico hora ruit, 1939”, “Concert, 1960”, “Cavafy portrait, 1948”, “Casanova, 1968”, and “Mediterranean Muse, 1984”, among others, comprise the manifold world of the artist who wrote poetry with his paintings and painted through his verses. This is Engonopoulos’ mystic universe, merging mythology with literature and history with poetry.

Nikos Engonopoulos was born in Athens in 1907 and died in 1987. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts under professors Konstantinos Parthenis, Dimitrios Biskinis, Thomas Thomopoulos, and Yiannis Kefallinos. Later on, thanks to his apprenticeship under Fotis Kontoglou and professor Alexandros Xyngopoulos, he was exposed to the tradition and the spirit of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine art. In 1967, he was appointed professor of painting at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, where he worked as a tutor since the late ’30s. In 1939, he presented his first solo exhibition at the home of Nikos Kalamaris, which attracted the critics’ attention, and went on to have several solo shows and participate in group and international exhibitions. In 1954, he represented Greece in the Venice Biennale and one year later he participated in the São Paulo Art Biennial. In 1958, he was awarded the First Prize for Poetry by the Ministry of National Education and in 1966, he was awarded the Order of the Gold Cross of George I for his work as a painter. His collections of poetry and his works as a theater designer, with the uniqueness of his personal expression, have been fundamental to modern culture. Find out more

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