Vitsoris Mimis (Dimitris)

In 1911 he settled with his family in Athens and in 1919 enrolled in the School of Fine Arts but he very quickly dropped out because he disagreed with the academic system of teaching. During the period 1920-1927 he travelled in Italy and Germany and went to Paris where he remained till 1925; he also worked for the newspaper Petit Parisien, publishing sketches. He then visited Malta, where his family had settled, and in 1927 returned to Athens, continuing to illustrate newspapers and magazines. At the same time, he was interested in the problems of art on a theoretical level and in 1940 published the essay “Τέχνη και Εποχή” (“Art and Epoch”) and the articles ” Έρευνα και διδασκαλία” (“Research and Teaching”), “Προβλήματα δημόσιας αισθητικής” (“Problems of Public Aesthetics”) and “Kαλλιτεχνική αγορά” (“The Art Market”) in the Greek magazine “Nεοελληνικά Γράμματα”.

He started to exhibit in 1922 with the organization of a solo show at the Autocratorikon gallery. This was followed by other solo shows and appearances in Panhellenies and group exhibitions, among which were those of the Art Group, of which he was a founding member; in 1934 he was one of the representatives of Greece at the Venice Biennale. After his death, retrospective presentations of his work were organized at Parnassos Hall in 1957, the Astor gallery in 1973 and the Dada gallery in 1987.

A restless and sensitive man, his work also displays an anti-academic spirit, and the portraits and landscapes, even the religious subjects, are painted in an expressionistic style with a proclivity for psychography. His sculpture shows the same inclination and consists mainly of heads in clay and plaster.