Composition 1980

Nikos Nikolaou made this painting, called Composition, with a quiet palette of earthy creams and hazy greys. You can almost feel the artist building up the layers, scraping back, and then adding more, as the forms slowly emerge into being. I can imagine Nikolaou standing back, squinting at the canvas, trying to find the right balance. The pale forms of the figures – one reclining, the other standing – feel so tentative and vulnerable. I get the sense that these figures are not so much solid objects, but fleeting glimpses, like memories or apparitions. The paint is thin, almost translucent in places, allowing the surface to breathe. See how the standing figure’s raised hands almost blend into the background? It's as if they're dissolving into the light, or reaching for something just out of grasp. Looking at this work, I can't help but think about other painters who have explored similar themes of memory and identity, like Giorgio de Chirico or even some of the early Renaissance fresco painters. Artists are constantly in conversation with each other, remixing and reimagining ideas across time. Each painting becomes a site for new ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world.