He took his first painting lessons in Athens, under Konstantinos Parthenis(1921-1922). In 1922 he was in Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonneto study French and Greek literature while at the same time also enrolling at the Ranson Academy and the engraving studio of Dimitris Galanis. He remained in the French capital till 1934, making trips to Greece during his residence. He had already begun to exhibit by 1923 when he participated in the Salon des Independents, where he also exhibited in the coming years, until 1926, while from 1930 to 1934 he took part in the Salon des Surindependents. In 1927 he had his first solo show in Paris at the Percier gallery and the following year at the Stratigopoulos gallery in Athens, along with the sculptor Michalis Tombros. In 1936-1937 he worked on the publication of the Greek magazine Το Τρίτο Μάτι in which he published translations of texts and articles. In 1937 he commenced his involvement with stage design, designing sets and costumes for performances of the Marika Kotopouli Theater. This was followed by cooperative endeavors with the New School of Dramatic Art run by Sokratis Karantinos (1938), the National Theater (1950), the Modern Greek Ballet of Rallou Manou (1950), the Matei School (1952) and Covent Garden in London (1961). In 1941 he was elected Professor at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University where he taught drawing and composition till 1958. In 1946 the first retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the British Council in Athens and this was followed, in 1973, by the retrospective at the National Gallery of Athens with one hundred and sixty four of his works. In 1949 he exhibited with the Junction group, of which he was a founding member, and in 1950 participated in the Venice Biennale with seventeen works. In the meantime he continued to have solo shows in many cities such as London, Paris and Berlin and in 1958 he began his association with the Iolas gallery, exhibiting in New York, Paris, Geneva and Milan. In 1973 he was elected a member of the Athens Academy and in 1979 was proclaimed honorary doctor of the Architectural School of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki while in 1986 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of London. The same year the artist donated forty-five of his works to the National Gallery. In 1992, in cooperation with the Benaki Museum, the Chatzikyriakos-Ghika Museum was founded in Athens.
A person with a variety of intellectual and artistic interests, he was also involved with engraving, book illustration and sculpture — a retrospective exhibition of his sculptural work was held in 1984 at the Trito Mati gallery in Athens — while he also gave many lectures and published studies and articles on art and aesthetics. A figure of the renowned “”Thirties Generation”” in Greece, Ghika developed cubist and constructivist formulations in his painting, which he used in combination with various types of Greek art, thus achieving a purely personal amalgam of the European avant garde and indigenous traditional elements.
He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1948-1953) under Andreas Georgiadis. In 1957 he presented his first solo exhibition at the Kouros gallery, participating in the Panhellenies of the same year. This was followed by other solo exhibitions and appearances in Panhellenies and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, such as the Youth Biennale of Paris in 1959, and the Biennales of Alexandria in 1967 and Sao Paolo in 1975.
Combining in his work elements of post-Byzantine painting as well as surrealism, he creates compositions which evidence his preoccupation with the relationship between the human being and outer space, as well as compositions inspired by the uprising at the National Technical University in 1973. At the same time he has become involved with the religious painting of churches.
He studied chemistry at the University of Athens, but was interested in art from an early age, and later took private lessons and studied painting and engraving at the Paris School of Fine Arts (1934-1935).
A member of the Junction group, he took part in its exhibitions in 1949 and 1952. He also appeared in nearly all the Panhellenies exhibitions as well as other group exhibitions and in 1957 took part in the Alexandria Biennale. In 1954 he presented his first solo show at the Payne gallery and in 1963 his work was presented in a retrospective at the Athenian Technological Institute while another was held at the National Gallery in 1990.
Remaining faithful to figurative depiction and employing oil painting, water color as well as new techniques concerned with color relationships, based on his chemistry studies, he was involved with portraiture, landscape, still life and interiors, placing emphasis on the atmospheric rendering of his compositions.
He studied sculpture at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts (1961-1962) with Venanzo Crocetti and then at the Rome Academy of Fine Arts (1963-1969). During the same period, he attended courses in interior design and fresco. During 1967-1970, he was curator at the Department of Sculpture, Rome Academy.
In 1971, his first solo exhibition was held at the Schneider Gallery in Rome, followed by solo exhibitions in Italy, Greece and other countries. He also participated in Panhellenic exhibitions as well as group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, including the Budapest Biennale of Sculpture (1975) and the Biennale del Bronzetto in Ravenna (1979), where he won the gold medal.
An anthropocentric artist, Manolis Tzombanakis takes his subjects from history, fable, ancient Greece, nature as well as social and political life. Using various materials – bronze, marble, stone, steel, wood and reinforced concrete – he creates works characterized by intense movement as well as a blend of Cubist and Futurist qualities, to which he gives symbolic status by analysing volumes into geometric forms and rearranging them with sharp volume sections.
Theodoros Chios studied painting in New York during the 1930s, after having studied Law at the University of Athens for two years. In 1942-1945, he served as a photographer and painter in the United States Marine Corps. In the late 1930s, he appears to have been working as a children’s book illustrator under Works Progress Administration (WPA), the U.S. federal programme for support of artists during the Depression. Chios also worked as an art teacher. His earliest works demonstrate the artist’s interest in the repercussions of Cubism, manifested in the way in which he used drawing in his otherwise naturalistic works. As was natural for an artist who lived in the U.S., he became familiar with the prevailing language of Abstract Expressionism, to the extent at least that he could grasp them. Thus, he had an abstract approach to the landscape in his visit to Greece in the early 1950s. During the following twenty years, he transformed his subjects into geometrical shapes invested with vibrant colours. In the late 1970s, he made a series of portraits inspired by Byzantine iconography, whereas in the following years he returned to figurative painting, in which typical, touristy versions of the Greek landscape prevailed (obviously dictated by the commercial demand for his work in the U.S.). Theodoros Chios had solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in art galleries mostly in New York but also in other U.S. cities. In 1989, he had a solo exhibition at the Koumantareios Art Gallery in his native Sparta, in the Peloponnese.
At the age of nineteen he went to Munich with the aim of studying law but soon departed for Paris where he studied at the School of Fine Arts and the Julian Academy. In the French capital he met important artists such as Juan Gris and Kees van Dongen. He returned to Greece and in 1921-1922, took part in the Asia Minor campaign, depicting war scenes, which were lost during the retreat, and which had previously been exhibited at the Zappeion Hall and in Smyrna.
He was one of the founding members of the “Art Group” and participated in its exhibitions (1919, 1920, 1930) and, in 1938, the “League of Greek Painters” of which he was elected President. In 1928 he participated in the organization of the art club “Atelier”, the subsequent “House of Letters and Arts”, while in 1934 with the painter Aleka Stylou he founded the first private school of painting in Athens which operated up to the German occupation. In 1939 he was appointed director of the branches of the School of Fine Arts in Hydra and Delphi.
In addition to painting he was also involved with caricature and set design, working as a set designer for the National Theater from 1930 on. His exhibition activity also included participation in Panhellenies between 1938-1965, the Venice Biennale of 1934 and the International Exhibition of Paris in 1937, as well as solo shows (Stratigopoulos gallery 1927, 1930, 1939, Studio 1934, 1937, Zygos 1958, 1964, National Gallery 1972). Posthumous retrospectives of his work have been presented at the National Gallery (1984) and the Melas Mansion (1994).
His early works show the influences of the French artistic tradition, mainly scenes of life in an urban environment, but portraits as well, while later he did depictions of landscape which show color sensitivity, the emphasis placed on the changeable and momentary.
He studied sculpture and stage design at the Athens School of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1967. In 1969 he participated at the Alexandria Biennale and in the same year he was awarded the First Parthenis Prize for his painting. He has also worked on composition, singing and literature, while he has been awarded a prize for book design (Leipzig 1979, 1983). Since 1969 he has been presenting his work in solo exhibitions in Athens and Thessaloniki. In 1990 has been organized a retrospective exhibition with his work at the French Institute
In his works he cultivates an expressionist painting with frugal, dark colors, that are characterized by a mood that is sometimes sarcastic and sometimes pessimistic.