049. PARTHENIS Constantine (1878-1967)

Allegorical Composition c1950s

Signed with initials & atelier stamped oil on canvas laid on board 18×77 cm

€ 8.000 – 10.000

A masterpiece by the great Alexandrian painter, with his recognizable personal morphological idiom, with extraterrestrial forms, through the sphere of allegory, religion and mythology. The abstract approach of the conscience of the Byzantine and archaic art is obvious, referring clearly to the question of the “Hellenicity” of the “1930s generation”. The style of the artist is simple and recognizable, with a well studied way of working, a result of many years of experiments to capture the elements of shaping and their quality. The forms in their unpretentious austerity hover in a poetic spiritual atmosphere full of a unique spirit of elegance and lyricism. In the non-real space, the figures appear with monumental gravity and imposingness, but on an ideal level, which gives them a transcendental hue. With the symbolic idealistic mood of this great artist they project timidly in a haze like the things of life that are revealed to us as a revelation through the fog of a dream. Closed and distant, they are presented, almost in a quote, without communicating with each other or with the viewer as if coming from an infinite and distant depth. With masterful use of the white color he creates solid volumes with a special plastic weight and influences the shapes displaying a studied structural function with special dexterity giving them at the same time spirituality. The forms are spiritualized with the use of the white for the rendering of shadows but also of the faint and simple painting volumes. The charming simplicity in expression and creative values ​​with the spiritualization of form liberates those who do not touch the ground and strive to free from the bonds of their own dreams.

PROV: Priv. collection Thessaloniki