Κοπέλα με λουλούδια

000043 Kyrillos Veniadis, Girl with flowers, n.d., oil on canvas, 130 × 104 cm

The figure of a young girl dominates the abstract, vague, and rather threatening space, defined by two large dark blue-brown trapezoidal surfaces and a blue sky-like zone. She is placed on the first level, to the right of the composition. Her torso is covered by foliage of some unspecified plant, emphatically highlighting her young face. The girl's gaze focuses on some point beyond the viewer and an enigmatic smile of smugness activates her expression. The landscape is conceived as a single, rough surface, with references to abstract expressionism. But the woman is depicted in the spirit of photographic/critical realism—she is a model undoubtedly derived from a photograph, perhaps published in a magazine of the time. Veniadis' work emanates from the wider climate of the early years of the Greek junta (1967-1974), when veiled criticism, the dynamic re-emergence of realism and criticism of the achievements of the preceding generation (Greek painters that promoted abstract art) created an explosive mixture of quests, intersections and changes. This trend culminated with the exhibition of the Young Greek Realists at the Goethe Institute in 1972, but continued strongly in the years that followed. In 1972, Veniadis moved to Canada. Consequently, his work should be dated to the period 1965-72, since in the North American country, his style changed drastically.