Invitation à la valse
signed 'Mayo' (lower right); signed, inscribed and numbered 'A138 Invitation à la valse Mayo Rome' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
55 x 46cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/8in).
Painted in Rome in 1972

Footnotes

Provenance
Galleria Annunciata, Milan.
Private collection, Milan.

Exhibited
Milan, Galleria Annunciata, Mayo, 15 November – 4 December 1972, no. 39.
Athens, Institut Français de Grèce, Mayo, 1983.

Literature
E. Yeatman-Eiffel, Antoine Malliarakis, dit Mayo, Venice, 2012 (illustrated p. 268).

Antoine Malliarakis was born in Egypt in 1905 to a Greek father who worked as an engineer for the Suez Canal Company, and a French mother. He moved to France in 1914 and studied architecture in Paris, before being accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1924. He frequented Parisian avant-garde circles and attended the Surrealists' meetings from 1924, where he met André Breton, Max Ernst, René Magritte and Yves Tanguy. He first exhibited alongside De Chirico, at the Galerie des Quatre Chemins in 1929, and also made a living as a costume and set designer.

The present paintings are emblematic of his Surrealist work. Focusing on the human figure, Mayo explored the communion between beings and nature. Depicting volumes and depths through a masterful and bold use of colour, Mayo painted mosaics composed of fragments and reflections taken from nature and the human body. Playing with anthropomorphic cut-outs, these paintings give freedom to the mind's perception and invite the viewer to explore the dual nature of the world.

Mayo's oeuvre is gaining increased recognition from major museums in the world, and his work is included in the current exhibition organised by Tate Modern in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Entitled Surrealism Beyond Borders, this exhibition explores the internationalism of the Surrealist movement beyond its Parisian epicentre and foregrounds artists who were historically overlooked because they were on the wrong side of the map.

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MAYO(ANTOINE MALLIARAKIS) (1905-1990)Invitation à la valse

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Impressionist & Modern Art (UK)