THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS

 

 

Greek surrealist painter and poet, Nikos Engonopoulos was one of the most famous modern Greek painters internationally.

 

He was an important figure of the Generation of the 1930s, a prominent group of artists and thinkers in Greece.

 

This group was fascinated with Greek identity and forming a Greek modernistic movement in the wake of modernism’s emergence in Europe.   Members of this group include some of Greece’s most prominent poets, artists and writers, including Giorgos Seferis, Odysseas Elytis and Yiannis Tsarouchis.  Please see below.

Nikos Engonopoulos was born on the 21^st October 1902 in Athens, but attended school in Paris and spent much of this childhood there.  When he returned to Athens Engonopoulos worked in a number of jobs, including translator, bank teller and secretary at the University of Athens.

 

In 1930 the artist began working as a designer in the Urban Planning Department of the Greek Ministry of Public Works.

 

 

Unsatisfied with his career and hoping to pursue art, Engonpoulos enrolled in the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1932, which was a vibrant period of the school when many famous Greek artists were studying and teaching there.  While a student, Engonopoulos studied under great Greek painters such as Kostsandinos Parthenis and Fotis Kontoglu.

He also met various prominent artists and painters during that period including the surrealist poet Andreas Embirikos and painters Yiannis Tsarouchis, Giorgio de Chirico, and Yiannis Moralis.

 

During his studies, Engonopoulos travelled to Paris, Vienna, Munich and around Italy for artistic inspiration. Upon his return to Greece and the completion of his studies, the artist began teaching painting, history of art and scenography at the Polytechnic School in Athens.

 

When the Greco- Italian war broke out in 1940, Engonopoulos fought on the Albanian front.

 

Much of his early works were paintings using tempera on paper and depicting traditional  Greek houses in bright colours.  As his artistic vision developed, he began to focus on ancient Greek history and mythology, placing well-known figures from myth into unexpected physical forms.    

 

PLEASE DO BE VACCINATED AGAINST COVID – 19 SO THAT YOUR BELOVED FAMILIES, FRIENDS, THE WORLD AND YOU WILL REMAIN  HEALTHY AND SAFE