Byzantios Dikos (Constantin) (1924 - 2007)

He was born in 1924 in Athens. He was the son of painter, Pericles Byzantios (1983-1972) and studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts, under Konstantinos Parthenis and Umberto Argyros (1942-45). In 1945 he was among the 200 scholars of the French State who arrived in Paris with the ship ‘Mataroa’, while the Civil War was breaking out in Greece. Since then he settled in Paris, attended the Academies Julian and Grande Chaumière, was introduced to the art of etching near Dimitris Galanis and joined the post-war Ecole de Paris.
His first solo exhibition was held in Paris (Ariel gallery, 1951). Shortly afterwards, he presented his work in Athens (Zachariou gallery, 1955), without him being present, since he could not return to Greece due to evasion of military service. Many other solo exhibitions followed in Paris, Athens and other European cities. He also participated in numerous group exhibitions and international art fairs.
His painting career began with landscape motifs and originally evolved towards abstraction. His abstract paintings form a comprehensive period of his work, dated primarily in the ‘60s. Towards the middle of the next decade, the painter returned to figurative art, first with black and white drawings and finally with anthropocentric compositions of large dimensions, which depict scenes of urban life in expressionist style. Characteristic features of his work are the emphasis on design and the unique relationship between forms and space, whether human figures or still lifes.
In 1985, he was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 1990, he was awarded the title of Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 1997 his first retrospective exhibition is held in France (Byzantios: 50 ans de peinture, Espace des Arts, Chalon-sur-Saône).
In 2000, he is among the 50 artists to whom the Olympic Museum in Geneva orders works to commemorate the Olympic Games centenary.
He died in Majorca (Spain) in 2007, about a month before his retrospective exhibition, Dikos Byzantios: In Search of the Lost Glance at the Benaki Museum. The same year, a monograph on his work was published by Adam editions.