"Bringing Engonopoulos out of the artist's shadow"

ΒΥ Avouri Chrysoula

Athens, 2025  

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Import

Nikos Engonopoulos was a poet, painter, teacher, set designer, prose writer – and the list goes on; he was an artist with a strong presence and a timeless influence on the art scene. The inspiration that his ideology and work gave birth to and continues to inspire is undeniable and concerns every aspect of surreal and non-surreal artistic creation.

In this work, the process of artistic approach and representation of Nikos Engonopoulos himself will be studied. The inspiration was the phrase that he used to say, that "the artist must remain in the shadows", which is related to his aversion to the mundane and his objection to the commercialization of art (Engonopoulos, 1999: 124,  ch.32[1]). A need arose, therefore, to shed "light" on Engonopoulos, not in the light of research – since he is not lacking in numerous academic studies concerning him – but in the light of art. The goal was thus to transform Engonopoulos himself into "art", into an "exhibit", utilizing and highlighting basic characteristics of his character, his life, and his works.

It can be argued that through art and creation one can capture more directly and brutally what would be lost in the course of a brutal scientific research. Research based art was chosen as the method. A mannequin's costume and a poem were the means to achieve this effort, to capture the essence of Engonopoulos – his soul as a person and as an artist.

The basis of this creation was the material from the Nikos Engonopoulos Archive, which is housed in the library of the Athens School of Fine Arts; paintings, poems, prose, interviews, costumes and theatrical performances, personal photographs, but also texts written about him, were what composed the puzzle for his artistic representation.

Of course, it would be sterile and useless to seek a simple copy of the artist's own image – either from his photographs or from his self-portraits – since, as he himself said, art requires us to seek and not to repeat (Engonopoulos, 1999: 25). The creation of both the costume and the poem emerged after study, search, but above all after challenging inspiration. For the final composition of the costume, a design, a color palette and a collection of objects were needed. For the writing of the poem, it was necessary to choose basic concepts/themes and create their composition.

With the utmost respect to the artist and the Archive's team, this work could be considered a form of tribute or a last ditch effort at understanding and getting to know each other.

Theoretical framework

Since Engonopoulos' approach to this work is largely creative and "experimental", not much time will be wasted on the extensive reference of theoretical concepts and analyses, but only the basic parameters that were chosen to be utilized in the subsequent synthesis will be mentioned.

The ability to access the Nikos Engonopoulos archive was a valuable opportunity, since it is a "meticulously organized one based on a hierarchical coding system, reflecting a complex archival structure". It was useful, but also necessary, to study all forms of the artist's works – poems, paintings, sets, costumes – but also texts written for or by him, and his interviews. All the documents that were used were his personal photographic archive and the books: "Introduction to the poetry of Engonopoulos", "The angels in heaven speak Greek", "Nikos Engonopoulos: The drawing or the color", "The Meter of Man", "Prose texts" and "Nikos Engonopoulos. His Painting World", from which information about his life and ideology was drawn, as well as samples of his poems and paintings. Of course, all this was complemented by personal bibliographic research.

Engonopoulos felt and declared himself first a painter and then a poet, and indeed when he published his first collection of poems "Don't Talk to the Guide", in 1938, he had already finished his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts and was recognized in the artistic world as a painter (Abatzopoulou, 2008: XIV, Engonopoulos: 171). In particular, he considered himself a "coloriste", that is, "a painter who expresses himself mainly through colour". In the dilemma "design or color?", he considered color superior – since its quality is to adorn, complement and emphasize – and he was an admirer of color intensity because of the light it provides.  The form/design, on the other hand, stands autonomously, needing, as it were, the color and especially the apparent discrepancy between form and color, in order to obtain a harmonious result. (Engonopoulos, 2007)

As for his other capacity, that of a university professor, Engonopoulos stated that he was disappointed, and that despite 35 years of teaching at the National Technical University of Athens, he felt that he had not been able to teach the essence, "they built apartment buildings and covered the Parthenon", he said, showing his perception of beauty (Engonopoulos, 1999: 104).

The concept of "classical", with the prestige it brings, was not only a protagonist in his architectural career, but also in painting, where he wished to "renew" surrealism with Greek elements. He belonged to the Surrealist movement, not because he identified with it, but because he believed that every artist should be part of an artistic movement of his time, in order to be able to have space to express himself and not be anachronistic. Engonopoulos had "chosen" surrealism – or perhaps surrealism had chosen Engonopoulos – because it gave him the freedom to experiment – that was art for him; "experimentation". (Abatzopoulou, 2008: XVI, XVI, Engonopoulos, 1999:25)

Keeping poetry "for the most difficult hours", as he himself said, he considered it to be the only thing that can give a sense of immortality to man (Engonopoulos: 171). And in it, of course, surrealism is at the center, with opposing images and concepts converging. (Annex 3)

Description and Creation

The two levels of the description of the two-member project created and the narration of the process of its creation are difficult to separate, since it is not a matter of research or analysis of themes and sectors with clear data. For this reason, an attempt will be made for a gradual and separate analysis of the individual elements of artistic creation.

So, after extensive study and reflection, the creation of a costume and a poem seems the "appropriate", but at the same time pressing, if one considers that both concern areas in which Engonopoulos himself has distinguished.

Starting from the costume, the idea was to simulate a form that would be depicted in a painting by Engonopoulos, but at the same time to reflect how he looks in the eyes of someone who studies him. For this purpose, individual elements/objects that would be placed on the mannequin would have to be selected, as well as aspects of his ideology that would arise when viewing the work.

Initially, the basic choice was for the costume to be mounted on a mannequin and not worn by a model, due to the leading role of the figure of the dummie in the works of Engonopoulos.

The effort of his own artistic creation required the placement of a ring on the index finger of the mannequin, an element that in his paintings testified to the depiction of himself or someone close to him whom he admired. Of course, the addition of glasses was important, since he himself was short-sighted and considered them a symbol of wisdom – even though his father forbade him to wear them,  The[1]  watch, the tie and the jacket were personal items with which he seems to be closely connected, both through his photographs and from his painted self-portraits (Appendix 1,2). The cigarette was another detail that was chosen, as there is information that he smoked "unfiltered cigarettes, Ace plain" cigarettes that have now been abolished (the cigarette on the mannequin was indeed an Ace brand) (Engonopoulos,  1999: 173).

The last element was a yellow scarf that covered his face, reminiscent of the painting "The Painter and His Model". The very specific choices, the use of intense, "pure" color, emerged from the close relationship of the artist's work with it, as mentioned above. Specifically, the yellow color was chosen since he is found in several of the paintings depicting himself or a person close to him. The covering of the face is linked to the element of the "nude", which also appears in the composition, defending Engonopoulos' belief that "the naked body never lies, while the face can". Engonopoulos chose to paint bodies, especially naked ones, and not faces; he justified this with the freedom that the absence of a face gave to everyone, to place one's own and to identify freely. (Engonopoulos, 1999:116, 124, 152, 153)

In most of his paintings, Engonopoulos depicted himself or the people close to him and the personalities he admired, completely naked or with the element of nudity evident. The most remarkable thought, then, that gave birth to this creation was the conjecture that the artist made this deliberate or unintentional choice (lapsus) expressing his belief in the honesty of the naked body. It was perhaps a form of separation of his ethos and those close to him from other personalities or artists. He gave special importance to ethos and believed that we should not talk about artists, but good creators, therefore people.  (Engonopoulos, 1999:116)

Movement, costume and theatricality are what give the person its personality, Engonopoulos considered (Engonopoulos, 1999: 152,153). This was attempted to be imprinted, at a minimum, in the composition with the "movement" of the tie. Here it should perhaps be noted that a draft of the suit had to be created on paper, before its final composition, in order to solve some technical issues, such as the one with movement. The tie was fastened with soft wire and the jacket was kept half-open, giving the feeling of wind and movement.

In the pre-construction stage, the creation of a color palette was also important, in order to create a harmonious result. A significant technical difficulty was the stabilization of the mannequin's limbs and individual objects, but this was solved by tying and gluing.

Moving on to the creation of the poem, the central axis was chosen to be – apart from the surreal synthesis of contrasting concepts – characteristic phrases and reflections of Engonopoulos, as they emerged from a study mainly of his interviews. Engonopoulos' profound artistic – and perhaps lonely – soul was an important inspiration; he loved creative solitude and considered that "the work of art is a whispered confession to noble people" (Engonopoulos, 1999: 174-176). He also considered himself a "student of suffering" and admired the "chromatic intoxication of a true, borderless, avant-garde" (Engonopoulos, 1999: 169, Engonopoulos, 2007).

These concepts, this vocabulary so vivid, but also heavy in its essence, was repeated in my mind persistently and that is why I chose to use the technique of repetition in the composition of the poem as well. This work, as much as the costume, expects to depict Engonopoulos -not to imitate-, to try to express through art, his aura, to try to create the same emotions that gave birth to this work.

The result was this:

Probably that

What defines us if not

the pain?

The Pain of the Shadow of Knowledge

if not

loneliness?

The loneliness that gives birth to creators

if not

Confession?

The confession that screams in a whispered whisper

if not

Drunkenness?

The Intoxication of Chromatically Carved Absence

if not

The explosion?

The explosion of this naked immortality

In order to contribute to the theatricality of the overall work, the poem was written on old paper and placed in the pocket of the mannequin's jacket.

Inference

The process of in-depth study of Engonopoulos' life and work was an occasion for creation beyond the limits of academic work. He gave life to the "experimentation" that Engonopoulos was talking about, he gave this freedom of the unknown. Data, materials, techniques that are not familiar and yet the result of all this seems absolute; Engonopoulos.

The conception of both works can be seen as a creation of "exhibits" that would be utilized in a possible exhibition on Engonopoulos. In a reflection for further research and the development of creation, the marriage of the two works – touching on the marriage of qualities of Engonopoulos (painter, poet) – could be emphasized by the use of digital vocal creation (simulation of Engonopoulos' voice), and the incorporation of the recording of the poem into the mannequin, so that the poem gives the feeling that it is recited by the artist himself.

References

Abatzopoulou, F., (2008) Introduction to the poetry of Engonopoulos. FORTH-UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF CRETE

Engonopoulos, N., (1999) Angels in Paradise Speak Greek. YPSILON/ BOOKS.

Engonopoulos, N., (2005) The Measure of Man. YPSILON/ BOOKS.

Engonopoulos, N., (2007) Nikos Engonopoulos: The design or the color. ICARUS.

Engonopoulos, N., (1987) Prose texts. YPSILON/ BOOKS.

Perpinioti-Agazir, K., (2007) Nikos Engonopoulos. His painting world. BENAKI MUSEUM

^[1] Since the page number is not visible in the photographs from the archival material, the chapter to which the reference corresponds is noted

 [1]Reference