074. (KESSANLIS) NIKOS (1930-2005)

‘Poplar trees’ 1987

Signed and dated acrylic /mix.media on canvas 200×90 cm

€ 7.000 – 8.000

Modest and at the same time so very impressive work by the eccentric international artist who never stopped experimenting and whose many exhibitions in Greece and abroad freed contemporary art in Greece from the impasses of “Greekness”. The freedom from tradition and independence from visual reality, the exploitation of purely painterly values and the decisive role of colour and light with the emphasis on structural features highlight with clarity their vital role in the above painting. In 1987, bringing back traditional means that he used in previous periods, he introduced the ‘Poplars’ series at the Pieridis gallery and, in the context of his seamless research into the reconstruction of the image, he constructed the ‘whole’ with formalized and at the same time simple unnecessary elements. Emphasizing contours he invites the viewer to visually restore the spatially fragmented image by condensing the theme into an elliptical frame where forms and language allude to an imaginary reality. 

PROV. Private collection Thessaloniki