Ύδρα 1953

Nikos Nikolaou’s painting titled Ύδρα is a love letter to the Greek island, translated into the language of flat shapes and muted tones. I can imagine Nikolaou standing before his canvas, squinting at the sun-drenched buildings, deciding which planes to simplify, which shadows to soften. He’s not trying to trick us into believing we're there, but rather, to capture the essence of the place, its architectural soul. The way he lays down the grey, the careful definition of the windows, the archways – these are the details that evoke the feeling of being in Ύδρα, not just seeing it. Artists like Nikolaou are in conversation with the cubists, flattening space and presenting multiple perspectives at once, but Nikolaou’s work feels more like a memory, distilled and serene. Painting is about opening up possibilities rather than closing them down. And it makes you wonder, doesn’t it, what other stories these walls could tell?