Karagatsi Niki

She began her studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1931, originally under Pavlos Mathiopoulos and Dimitris Geraniotis and then at the studio of Umvertos Argyros and Konstantinos Parthenis but in 1935 she interrupted her education in order to marry the writer M. Karagatsis. After the Liberation, having abandoned painting for a long period of time, she took lessons in copperplate at the studio of Yannis Kefallinos and then began to paint again.

In 1950 she presented her work for the first time in an exhibition of the Spirit-Level group while in 1956 she organized her first solo show at the Payne Gallery. This was followed by other solo shows as well as participation in Panhellenies and group exhibitions, inside and outside Greece, such as the Biennale of Alexandria in 1965. In 1988 her work was presented in a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery.

Faithful to figurative painting, she depicted landscapes, still lifes and scenes from everyday life accompanied by her own personal experiences and her familiar environs, family and friends. Her compositions, imbued with intense elements of “Greekness”, are marked by a sentimental but at the same time realistic mood, without any special accent put on the details, the main element being color.