Substance and Shadow 1938

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas made this painting called Substance and Shadow with an almost muted palette. Look at the way the objects seem to sit on top of one another, a flattening that invites us to consider the process of seeing and art making. The matte surface of the paint gives the piece a tactile quality. You can almost feel the grain of the canvas beneath. Notice how the light catches the edges of the forms, creating a subtle interplay of shadow and illumination. Check out the bird figure in the foreground – the way it’s both solid and somehow dissolving into the background, as if it’s caught between worlds. That odd shaped thing below the bowl - it is like a funny, slightly out of kilter drawing of an elephant. Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas reminds me a little of Giorgio Morandi, who had a very different approach, but shared a similar interest in simple shapes arranged in an interior space. Like Morandi, Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas suggests that art is a continuous conversation between artists, where ideas are exchanged and transformed over time.