Artist’s CV
Artist Biography Nikos Nikolaou (Hydra, 1909 – Athens, 27 July 1986) was a distinguished Greek painter, engraver and sculptor of the so-called “generation of the 30s”.
He was born in 1909 in Hydra, but after the end of World War I, his family moved to Athens and settled in Plaka.
In 1929, Nikolaou was accepted at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he studied painting under the tutelage of Umberto Argyros and Konstantinos Parthenis.
At the Athens School of Fine Arts he met the painter Yannis Moralis, with whom he formed a long-term friendship.
He presented his first works in 1932 at the exhibition of the students of the School of Fine Arts.
In 1935 he became a member of the group ‘Free Artists’ and participated in an exhibition organised in Parnassos.
Together with Moralis, in 1937 he left to continue his studies in Paris and Rome.
The war of 1940 forced him to interrupt his studies and return to Athens.
After the war, Nikolaou devoted himself to painting.
He participated in the founding of the group “Armos” and its exhibitions and in 1947 he held his first solo exhibition at the art gallery “Rommos”.
From 1949 he undertook to create murals using the fresco technique in various public buildings, including the Panteion School (now Panteion University).
From 1954 he collaborated with the Karolos Koun Art Theatre, for which he created sets and costumes for many performances.
In 1964 he settled in Aegina with his wife Angela Zoumboulakis.
In the same year he was elected a full professor of design at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he taught for a decade and served as its director during the years of the dictatorship.
He was a contributor to the magazine Nea Estia.
In the 1970s, Nikolaou began to paint sea pebbles in his own unique way.
At the same time, he was engaged in engraving and book illustration.
He also dabbled in sculpture, but this remains the least known aspect of his work.
He died in Athens in 1986.
Shortly after his death, his only book was published, entitled The Adventure of Line in Art (Athens 1986).
Nikos Nikolaos’ works have been presented in many solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
In 1936 and 1964 he represented Greece at the Venice Biennale and in 1957 at the São Paulo Biennale.
In 1991 an exhibition of his works was held at the National Gallery of Greece.
In the spring of 2005, the Benaki Museum organized a major retrospective exhibition of his works.
The same exhibition was transferred shortly afterwards to the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Berlin.
