Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
R.B. Kitaj, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York
Ronald B. Kitaj

Smyrna Greek (Nikos)

1976 - 1977
Oil on canvas.
243.8 x 76.2 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
619
(
1977.67
)
ROOM 52
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
“I like the idea that it might be possible to invent a figure, a character, in a picture the way novelists have been able to do, ” Kitaj once confessed. The literary roots of his painting are particularly evident in Smyrna Greek (Nikos), not only because the figures are two poets, but because the scene tells a story. The artist gave a brief explanation of the present work in the catalogue of his exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London in 1994: “This portrait of my friend Nikos Stangos was inspired by his fellow Greek poet Cavafy, who described his daily walk past the brothels in the port of Alexandria. I had just returned to London from my only trip to Greece, which lasted very few days and while he posed for me in that walking position, I told Nikos about my bizarre and unconsummated wandering down the port of Piraeus, as if in imitation of C.P. Cavafy. So the painting is about the two poets and me.”

Like nearly all the people in Kitaj’s paintings, the main figure in the composition is painted from life. Located in the foreground, the London-based Greek poet and editor Nikos Stangos, who, as we have seen, is cast in the role of the homosexual poet Constantin Cavafy (whose work Stangos had translated into English, ) strolls indifferently past a prostitute positioned outside a brothel. Visible inside is a staircase which is descended by a person with an absentminded or satisfied look about him; Kitaj portrays himself, perhaps to show us that his painting is always based on a personal experience.

Marco Livingstone tells how Kitaj, who portrayed his own personal experiences with great truthfulness in his work, was somewhat astonished to discover that his private life was a source of inspiration for the main character in Sabbath’s Theater, the novel published by his great friend the American writer Philip Roth in 1996. It tells the story of a failed puppeteer whose youthful exploits in brothels are based literally on the accounts Kitaj had given Roth of his teenage sexual experiences. Where the main character, Sabbath, tells of his grief at the loss of his lover, Roth transcribed conversations he had had with Kitaj following the death of the artist’s own companion. Kitaj, an artist who wanted “to invent a character, a personality” in his painting just as “novelists were capable of doing, ” became himself the lead character in a novel about love and death, a novel in which the desperate pursuit of sex is none other than a manner of fending off the anguish of death.

Paloma Alarcó
20th Centurys. XX - Figuración en la posguerra europeaPaintingOilcanvas
Listen
Download image Print page

Tours to find it

The Death of Hyacinthus. La muerte de Jacinto, ca. 1752-1753
Tours
Inclusive love

A different look, based on gender, identity and sexual orientation.

A Girl in Japanese Gown. The kimono, c. 1887
Tours
Journeys

Our thematic route through the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza rooms to a land (as in Baudelaire’s dream in Invitation to the Voyage) where “all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure”.

Products and publications

Los impresionistas y la fotografía. Exhibition catalogue. Spanish Hard Cover

Los impresionistas y la fotografía. Exhibition catalogue. Spanish Hard Cover

38.00 € 25.00 €

Catalog Walid Raad: Cotton Under My Feet (English)

Catalog Walid Raad: Cotton Under My Feet (English)

25.00 € 23.75 €

Masterpieces. National Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza

Masterpieces. National Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza

19.50 €

Poster Vincent van Gogh: Les Vessenots in Auvers

Poster Vincent van Gogh: Les Vessenots in Auvers

12.50 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

Ronald B. Kitaj
Ronald B. Kitaj
A Visit to London (Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan)
1977
Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso
Caffè Greco
1976
Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Last Portrait
1976 - 1977
Leon Kossoff
Leon Kossoff
Booking Hall. Kilburn Underground Station No. 1
1976
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
Smyrna Greek (Nikos). El griego de Esmirna (Nikos), 1976-1977
Smyrna Greek (Nikos)
Ronald B. Kitaj

©

R.B. Kitaj, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, this work is protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out by the Fundación, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación.

Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use, which, however, do not apply to the reproduction of the works included in the photographs, as they are protected by Copyright.

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación P. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images of the Fundación. that has been previously authorized must be accompanied by the copyright text indicated by the owners or their copyright holders as well as the following mention: Provenance: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid”.
  • The user will send free of charge to the Museum Photo Library. One (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
Smyrna Greek (Nikos). El griego de Esmirna (Nikos), 1976-1977
Smyrna Greek (Nikos)
Ronald B. Kitaj

©

R.B. Kitaj, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York

Terms of Use

The Photographic Archive of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms and use of images
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022