Skoulakis Demosthenis (1939 - 2014)

Born in Athens in 1939, he apprenticed himself to Spyros Papaloukas and briefly to Fotis Kontoglou. In 1958 he began to attend the workshop of P. Sarafianos, in 1959 he enrolled in the preparatory course of ASFA under G. Mavroidis and in 1961 he joined the School’s workshops under Y. Moralis. At the same time attending the stage design and decoration classes of V. Vassiliadis. In 1968 he travelled to Paris and then to North and South America. In 1969 he returned to Europe, living and working until 1974 in Paris, London and West Berlin, the human and artistic experiences from his sojourn abroad influencing his creative course.
From 1959 to 1984 he worked professionally as a caricaturist, winning the caricature prize in a contest organised by the Eleftherotypia magazine and the Ministry of Press. He worked also in advertising, as stage designer and as art contributor to magazines and art publications and as illustrator of children’s books. In 1981 he presented his first solo exhibition at the Ora Centre, and after 1984 he devoted himself exclusively to painting.
His subjects are predominantly anthropocentric, with many experiential elements. A critical stance to the social and political conditions of the ’60s and ’70s is manifest in his older works. He soon develops a personal version of photographic realism that highlights the subjective and poetic aspects of the image. He paints portraits for friends and public figures in large compositions in which the realistic rendering is combined with metaphysical elements. In 1990 he presents his Tribute to Yannis Tsarouchis and in 1995 the series Routes of the Underground with subjects from the metropolitan railway of Athens. Finally, in the series The Gambling and the Myth of Forms (2000) he attempts a critical approach of modernism through references to various kinds of ‘realism’ and ‘avant-garde’ in the painting collections of major museums.
He presented his works in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. In 2006 the Frissiras Museum presented the major “Retrospective 1957-2005”, and in 2015 the Peri Technon-Karteris Gallery hosted the posthumous exhibition “A small retrospective in his memory”. His works can be found in the National Gallery, the Municipal Gallery of Athens and other Galleries and private collections.