"Antoine Malliarakis Says Mayo (1905 – 1990)- Frond, 1952."
Oil on cardboard
Signed and bottom right
Annotated on the back, "Mayo Paris 1952"
Dimensions: 61 x 46 cm, with frame: 71 x 57 cm .
Provenance: Philippe Noiret collection
The painter depicts a virgin forest in which the viewer is called to get lost. The frontality of the curtain of greenery is only apparent: when we look at it in more detail, the curtain crumbles and comes off in a multitude of leaves, like so many hands ready to catch the viewer. The tones are ocher, green, white. The painting, almost abstract, demonstrates that it represents an object of reality thanks to the painter, who figures two trunks in transparency.
Antoine Malliarakis dit Mayo was born in Port Said, Egypt, to a French mother and a Greek father. He studied in Alexandria and then left his native country for France. In the capital in 1924, he met Man Ray, Tristan Tzara, Robert Desnos ... and discovered the Paris of Montparnasse.
He meets André Breton, but avoids joining the Surrealist movement to preserve his freedom as a painter. He knew his first successes in 1929, when he exhibited at the Quatre Chemins Gallery with De Chirico. In addition to his activity as a painter, he makes a career in the decoration of fashionable cafes and sets for plays (for Marcel Duhamel, Les hauts de Hurlevent, he collaborates with Christian Bérard and Boris Kochno for the costumes and the Roland Petit sets, creates the costumes for the Children of Paradise ...). He travels to Greece, Spain, settles in Rome and returns to France in 1985.
Bibliography : . Bénézit, "Mayo, Antoine pseudonym of Malliarakis" Oxford Library online, 31 Oct. 2011
Museum : . In Paris: George Pompidou Center-museum of modern art, CNAP (national center for plastic arts). In France: Greuze Museum of Tournus