Nikos Engonopoulos and Surrealism

Nikos Georgatselos, Nikitas Statheas, Konstantinos Finikopoulos

Athens, June, 2025

1.Introduction

Nikos Engonopoulos and the work he has created throughout his life have been the subject of research for many researchers over the years. On the occasion of the publication of part of the archive of Nikos Engonopoulos by the Athens School of Fine Arts and in the context of the course "Modern Greek Literature in the Media", our team decided to create a work, which would highlight part of the first stage of Nikos Engonopoulos' career, as well as the way in which he introduced surrealism in Greece. The 30s were chosen as the object of work, as the work, which Nikos Engonopoulos had created at that time, was particularly rich and had a lot of interest. Both the literary and visual art of Engonopoulos are of particular interest, but their simple presentation could not highlight the full value of this work. That's why the members of our team decided to create a mini-documentary, which lists some of the most important pieces and elements of the '30s, concerning Nikos Engonopoulos.

This idea was born on the occasion of the show "The Time Machine", which presents historical data and events in a particularly creative way. In a similar context, we also wanted to quote the historical data we have about the life of Engonopoulos during the 1930s. Thus, we found ourselves on the hill of Filopappou, a spot with a panoramic view of the Acropolis, which Nikos Engonopoulos loved so much. The choice of this particular hill was of particular importance for our team, because it was a very important location for the implementation of the whole work and, while we initially relied on this specific idea, later we did not know if it could be implemented.

With this work, our main goal was to highlight the early stages of Engonopoulos' artistic life and the influence he seems to have had on the introduction of surrealism in Greece. We believe that the early years are the fundamental basis of every artist for his later career and based on the size of Nikos Engonopoulos' work, we cannot fail to pay special attention to the artist's early years. The promotion of the work that each artist has created has very interesting bases, and as in this case, these bases should not go unnoticed.

As can be seen in the following chapters of this work, a large part of the work that Nikos Engonopoulos created in the 1930s was utilized, while a large part of the historical archive from other sources was also sought, in order to correctly depict the educational subject with which Nikos Engonopoulos had been involved in that decade.

2. Theoretical and Historical Context

Naturally, our work could not begin by quoting simple elements of the '30s about Engonopoulos, especially in the form that we decide to give it, that of the documentary. Our work begins with a very brief historical retrospective of the early years of Engonopoulos' life and that of his family. Information about his father, mother and uncle, who helped him a lot in the early years of his life, are listed in the first part of the paper and are mainly based on documented sources on the internet. At the same time, we learn some information about the early stages of the young Engonopoulos' educational life, but also about the subsequent implementation of his military service.

In general, the work of Dimitris Tziovas "the myth of the generation of the '30s" and Mario Vitti "the generation of the '30s" due to the historical contexts and the information available to them helped us in particular to develop our research and to promote the correct historical data without irregularities. The works of art that are in the Archive of the Athens School of Fine Arts also helped us, as we included them to a large extent in our work, listing them according to the time frame and the topic we were interested in referencing, namely surrealism. At the same time, we also delved into the concept of surrealism, which according to the Tate organization "... It aims to revolutionize the human experience. It balances a realistic conception of life with one that recognizes the power of the unconscious and dreams. The artists of the movement find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the creepy, in the neglected and the unconventional. At the core of their work is the willingness to challenge imposed values and norms and the search for freedom."

The family context to which we initially referred was also based on the images from the albums to which we were given access during our visits to the archive of Nikos Engonopoulos. Photographs of the young Nikos and his school years as an intern in a school in Paris were used. There is also a reference to Engonopoulos' return to Athens in 1927 in order to perform his military service, again accompanied by the corresponding photographic archive.

Reference is then made to the first stages of Engonopoulos' working period. In the early 1930s, Nikos Engonopoulos worked in the Directorate of Urban Plans of the Greek state, while at the same time he began his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts, as confirmed by his CV, published on the website eikastikon.gr. There he attends the workshop of Fotis Kontoglou, a workshop that Ioannis Tsarouchis also attends, as can be confirmed by the historical archive that the National Gallery has. Engonopoulos attended the workshops of many others, such as Konstantinos Parthenis, Dimitrios Biskinis, Thomas Thomopoulos and Yiannis Kefallinos, but Kontoglou was the most important for Engonopoulos. As is also confirmed by the historical data and the National Gallery, Engonopoulos collaborated with Tsarouchis in order to design the frescoes of Fotis Kontoglou's house.

Engonopoulos was one of the pioneers of surrealism in Greece and his work can be said to be based on this art movement. The first surrealist was Breton who wrote the Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924. Surrealism in Greece came in 1935. The main exponents of this movement are, on the one hand, Nikolaos Kalas through Marxism and Andreas Embiricos through psychoanalysis. These two writers attempted to spread surrealism by creating a group of people who were called surrealists, but they did not succeed mainly due to the regime of the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, which began on August 4, 1936 and which, according to the "Time Machine", persecuted every different ideology.

Despite the dictatorship, Embiricos and Kalas started publishing the magazine "Nea Fyla", which was the first surrealist magazine in Greece. Nikos Engonopoulos joined the magazine's team in 1938 when he published his poetry collection "Don't talk to the driver", a collection that had received heavy criticism and had been the subject of literary scandal and ridicule. The following year, Engonopoulos published his poetry collection "The Key Cymbals of Silence", but 1939 was a milestone year mainly for his visual art, as it was then that he had his first surrealist art exhibition at the home of Calas, as well as another exhibition in New York, something that we can also see through the historical archive of the National Gallery.

Apart from these exhibitions, one can say that 1939 is probably the most fruitful year of art for Engonopoulos since, as can be seen through his archive, he signed some of his best-known paintings. "Delos", the "Posthumous Self-Portrait" as well as other paintings that Engonopoulos signed at the time are the first examples of a very brilliant career and are promoted to a large extent through this particular work, in order to highlight the influence of Engonopoulos on the surrealism movement in Greece.

3. Description of the Creative Work

                Our documentary entitled "Nikos Engonopoulos and Surrealism", as mentioned above, concerns the life and work of Engonopoulos during the interwar period, as well as surrealism. For this purpose, the documentary uses primary evidence from the archive, mainly photographs from the artist's childhood, youth and adult life. At the same time, the paintings he created during this period of his life, as well as the poems, are used. In addition, photographs from the internet are used, with regard to all the people mentioned in the documentary, and finally clippings from newspapers of the era, which are part of the archive located at the School of Fine Arts in material form, but also others that were retrieved from the internet, in electronic form, are presented.

                Essentially, the documentary is divided into three thematic axes, although the chapters have not been clearly divided during the course of the documentary. The first thematic axis is the youth and student years of Nikos Engonopoulos, during which he was an intern at a high school in Paris and came into contact with the Surrealism movement and then, continued his studies in Greece, at the Higher School of Fine Arts, which shaped his artistic education. The second axis concerns surrealism and more specifically its birth in France, the arrival of the current in Greece and the attempt to spread it by its exponents and the difficulties they faced. Finally, the third thematic axis concerns the artistic work produced by Engonopoulos, both with his paintings, his poems and his other works, such as the sets for theatrical performances.

In order to present the above information in an understandable way, it was decided to organize and narrate in chronological order. Thus, it covers a range from the beginning of Nikos Engonopoulos' life to the end of the 30s, since, as mentioned above, the hires received by the artist during the first years of his life had a profound impact on his artistic work. As far as the material used is concerned, the most representative photographs were chosen, in our opinion, from the personal collection of Nikos Engonopoulos, which are in the archive of the library of the School of Fine Arts. At the same time, the paintings created by the artist were also used, especially in 1939, i.e. the most productive year of the period we examined. Finally, there are photographs of all the important people mentioned in our documentary and who deeply influenced the life and work of Nikos Engonopoulos.

Among other things, we chose to make a short documentary, on the one hand, because of the cultural background of the group, as we deal with cinema and documentaries, both in terms of watching in our daily lives, and in their production, mainly during our academic career, but also because two of us are in the direction of culture. On the other hand, as we believe that image and narration are the most direct and interesting way to present the knowledge we gained from our research.

At the same time, the production of a documentary is something extremely interesting in all its aspects. Starting with data collection, script writing, filming and editing, it is a series of processes, which require all different skills and knowledge and which create the feeling that quality work is being produced.

 As has been mentioned, the photographs, paintings and excerpts from the poems created by Nikos Engonopoulos, used in this work, as mentioned, are arranged in chronological order.

 In the context of the analysis of the work of Nikos Engonopoulos, which was used, two of the paintings presented in our documentary and which he created during the period we examined, will be analyzed. In the painting "Delos" (1939), the contrast between the realistic perception of the island of Delos, which was a sacred place of worship in antiquity, and the surreal world that emerges through the fantastic figures and strange landscapes of the painting, is evident. In the same way, the painting "Posthumous Self-Portrait" (1939) presents a particularly characteristic surrealist combination of image and ideas. Engonopoulos creates the self-portrait, combining the in-between situation, presenting himself as a ghost. In this way, he creates an image, with everything that surrounds him, that draws elements from the concept of death.

Both of Engonopoulos' paintings "Delos" and "Posthumous Self-Portrait" incorporate the philosophy of surrealism, as the artist combines logic with paradox and his paintings seem to have come out of a dream. Thus, thanks to both paintings, he can retrieve elements from his unconscious and reach the limits of his imagination, breaking the barrier of realism and questioning conventional values.

4. Description of the Creative Process

For the creation of the documentary, we followed some important steps, so that we have correct and correct information about the life of Nikos Engonopoulos in the 30s and so that the final result is as beautiful as possible technically (visually and acoustically).

Initially, the process began with the collection of photographic material from Engonopoulos' archive in the library of the Athens School of Fine Arts, which would be used in the documentary. There was an attempt to find audiovisual material of Engonopoulos from that period, but unfortunately there was no one in the archive and we could not find anything relevant on the internet. Then we started looking for information about Engonopoulos' life at that time and on the internet. In this process, as in most of the others, we involved all three members of the team in order to achieve the goal faster and so that we do not omit some important information or mention to an important person.

Once we had gathered all the important information we needed as material to use in the creation of the documentary, we started to analyze the information we had gathered. So, from simple notes, we began to create a text that analyzed the life of Engonopoulos in the 30s with detailed information. The same text, with some minor changes, is used in the documentary as its narration. The process of writing the text took about 2 days until it reached its final form.

After completing the writing of the narrative, we had to decide what form the documentary would take. At first we wanted it to be just photographic material with some videos with Engonopoulos, but as mentioned above, we couldn't find such videos. So, taking inspiration from the show "Time Machine", we decided to shoot in an outdoor space and to appear on camera as presenters-narrators of the documentary. The outdoor space we chose for the filming was Philopappou Hill and the view that the space has, that is, the view of the Acropolis. We decided that this was an ideal spot as the Acropolis and antiquity were a source of inspiration for many of Engonopoulos' artworks and it was something that he particularly admired. The filming took place on a Saturday morning, which was a bit of a problem as there was a lot of people and a lot of noise, so it was a bit problematic to find enough quiet places for filming. When the locations were found, filming began. Two IPhone 13s were used, one to capture the footage and one as a microphone, as some footage may have sounded bad due to the air. So we secured the right audiovisual material for the shooting. This process lasted about 4-5 hours as there were not many shots to be made and relatively few retakes were needed.

After this process was successfully completed, the next and technically more difficult one began, that of editing the documentary. We started by collecting all the footage we had found and shot and doing a "scraping" of it, keeping the best shots from our shooting, as well as the material that we thought would be more correct to use in the documentary. As soon as this was completed we started the assembly. Nikos was responsible for this and so we had entered into a group call to see this process all together and exchange ideas on what we can change, how to do something, what sound to put on and so on. The editing process lasted about 8 hours as we made several changes and tried to make it as good as possible. The editing was done on the DaVinci Resolve app, which is the most well-known and most easy-to-use video editing app.

5. Conclusions

Throughout the creation of the documentary, from the conception of the idea to its implementation, we were particularly interested in the life of Engonopoulos and his works. We discovered several important works and important facts about his life, which surprised us and made us interested to look further for other information beyond the time period on which the documentary is based.

This creative process, as mentioned above, created many questions and queries for the rest of Engonopoulos' life. So we entered into a process of exploring his life in order to answer questions such as: when exactly did he start his involvement with poetry and visual creation? - When did he delve into surrealism? - What has been his artistic evolution over the years?

Through the creative approach, the way one can understand an artistic work is greatly enriched. Initially, by analysing the chronological period as well as the socio-economic situation of the period of the creation of the project, it is much easier to understand the messages promoted by the project under consideration.

In conclusion, some ideas we have for improving our work are to lengthen it with further information and to delve into other aspects of Engonopoulos' life at that time.

Bibliography

Tate. (n.d.). Surrealism | Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism

Eikastikon.gr (2019). Painting – Nikos Engonopoulos – Curriculum Vitae. https://www.eikastikon.gr/zografiki/egonopoulos_cv.html

National Gallery (Athens). (2009.). Níkos Engonópoulos. https://www.nationalgallery.gr/artist/engonopoulos-nikos/

zouri1. (2013, June 30). Nikos Engonopoulos (1907–1985). https://zouri1.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%82-%CE%B5%CE%B3%CE%B3%CE%BF%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%82-1907-1985/

fatsimare. (2003, 4 August). The regime of 4 August 1936. https://www.fatsimare.gr/kserete-oti/2003/08/04/to-kathestos-tis-4is-aygoystoy-1936/