Nikolaou Nikos

He expressed an interest in art at early age and in 1929 started his studies at the School of Fine Arts in the studios of Konstantinos Parthenis and Umvertos Argyros. He graduated in 1936 and the following year left with his close friend Yannis Moralis for Rome. With a scholarship from Prince Nikolaos, which he won in 1939, he continued his studies in Paris but the outbreak of World War II forced him to return to Greece.
Having started to exhibit in 1936, and participating in the group exhibition at the Venice Biennale, in 1948 he presented his first solo show while taking part in the exhibitions of the groups Free Artists, Art Group and Junction, of which he was a founding member, as well as in Panhellenies and international exhibitions, such as the Biennales of Venice in 1964 and Sao Paolo in 1957. After his death his work was presented in various exhibitions and in 1991 at a large retrospective at the National Gallery.
In the context of his broader artistic activity he was also involved with set design, making sets and costumes for Karolos’ Koun’s Art Theater, the Greek Ballet of Rallou Manou, and the State Theater of Northern Greece as well as the presentations of ancient drama at Epidaurus and Herod Atticus Theater. Another aspect of his creativity can be seen in his involvement with portable frescoes and wall painting, which he started in 1949 and includes the decoration of the ceremonial hall and the student room of the Panteion University, the Mousouris Theater and the Theotokopoulos Club in Herakleio, a tourist hotel in Sparta, the tourist pavilion in Mycenae and so on. He also worked for the Greek magazine Νέα Εστία illustrating stories, while having made a serious study of ancient Greek art, he published articles concerned with the harmonious chiselling of the works and the creation of the Kouros. In 1964 he was elected professor at the School of Fine Arts. In 1986, shortly after his death, his book Η περιπέτεια της γραμμής στην Τέχνη (The Adventure of the Line in Art) was published and contains theoretical texts related to his experiences and his experiments in art.
In his painting, characterized by a spareness of style, a holdover from his brief service in abstraction, and by a lack of numerous and intense colors, the dominant motif from the very beginning was the fleshy, naked female figure, rendered without perspective and accompanied by the three Greek trees, the fig, olive and pomegranate. On a more limited scale he was also involved with still life and landscape and experimented with painting on stones.