Despite fourth hour is coming 1973

Alekos Kontopoulos made this painting, 'Despite fourth hour is coming', at some point in the mid-twentieth century. It is a rich, if somewhat baffling, composition of forms in space. We see a window, a reclining figure and a mask or animal head, all rendered in a gestural, expressionist style. The text in the upper left of the painting, in Greek, is not obviously connected to the imagery, making it more like a fragment of graphic design. The painting feels like a kind of personal surrealism, but it also relates to the political history of Greece in the mid-twentieth century. Following the Second World War, the country was thrown into a civil war between communist and anti-communist forces, leaving society deeply fractured. The imagery here seems to echo this experience of division, in which meaning is obscured and the promise of enlightenment, represented by the window and the moon, is dimmed. The painting can be researched further by studying Greek history of the period, as well as critical texts on the history of art institutions.