Artist’s CV
George Manousakis was born in 1914 in Heraklion, Crete, where he spent his childhood and student years.
He was a painter, engraver, editor, writer, historian, photographer, filmmaker and critic. He started painting from a very young age, as he had paint colors available from his merchant father’s shop.
Giorgos Manousakis, one of the most valuable painters of the 1930s generation, studied at the School of Fine Arts with teachers O. Argyros, K. Parthenis and G. Kefallinos.
Giorgos Manousakis, a multi-talented artist and a nimble and lively spirit, sought throughout his life to know the world through his own eyes, to investigate and understand everything that was happening around him, whether it had to do with man and nature, or with art and science. His painting and other pursuits, as well as his handwritten notes on scientific, cultural, environmental, and even political issues, dating back to the last months of his life, testify to his concerns and great appeal for learning . “I was drawing, photographing, making movies, but above all I was learning,” he writes in one of his autobiographical notes. It is no exaggeration that G. Manousakis realized, perhaps without seeking or realizing it, the ideal of the “universal man”, homo universalis, as shaped by the Renaissance era. And this appeal for search, decisive for his general course in art and life, emerges through his multiple occupations and interests – apart from painting – such as photography, botany, aerial modeling and many others. , occupations completely different from each other. Manousakis’ nature, as only those who knew him well can testify, was restless and risky. He searched, he experimented, he defied danger, sometimes he sought it, as with a flight he wanted to make in a glider, and finally he succeeded. This pure and restless spirit, with the honest painterly look, drew close people to him, and these acquaintances developed into esteem and lifelong friendship.
G. Manousakis was modest by nature, avoided publicity, looked for the essential in his surroundings and in his art. Perhaps that is why the critics classified him among our “oligographic” painters. However, his work refutes such a characterization. Over 600 of his works have been recorded, watercolours, oils, temperas and egg temperas, as well as many drawings and engravings. Through his work, beyond the miniaturist, the studio painter, the portrait painter or the engraver, the lover of the Greek space is displayed, who traveled like few others throughout Greece and recorded monuments and places, human types and everyday scenes . “Without realizing it, I had begun to love Greece passionately despite all its evils and to feel proud and happy that I lived in this place. Little by little I began to find some purpose, some reason in my painting, which was outside of painting”, he wrote himself in an attempt to record his course.
Yiannis Tsarouchis was the reason that Giorgos Manousakis cooperates with Emporiki Bank, where he has been the artistic editor of its publications for almost twenty years. “… There I had the opportunity to get to know up close the treasures of Greek art, which were the subject of her diaries and publications”, he writes.
Works by Manousakis can be found in art galleries, institutions, banks and galleries, as well as in private collections in Greece and abroad. Through the work of Manousakis, which covers a long period, we have the possibility not only to follow his artistic course, but also to detect the general climate that was formed from 1930 onwards and influenced the development of Greek painting in the 20th century. “The years are gathering behind me and my hair is getting whiter, but deep down I still feel like a child. Whenever I tried to get serious about painting, I always made mistakes. I quickly realized this and turned back to the road I had taken. I don’t want to refer to specific cases, but painting for me has always been something like a game, but a serious game, not serious”
On 30/12/1996 the Academy of Athens awarded him for his contribution to Greek painting.
As a filmmaker, he shot more than 40 short documentaries from 1960 to 1977. The subjects of Smyrna bazaar, Ephesus, Pergamon, Mani (1965), Lemnos (1967), Athens (1964) etc. stand out. .
His films are presented on the page Click here FILMS – Amateur cinema
