Ioannou Giorgos (1926 - 2017)

Born in Athens in 1926, he studied painting under Costas Iliadis and Theodoros Drosos in Athens and continued in Paris at the Académie Julian under Caude Schurr and Mac Avoy.
In 1959 he presented his first solo exhibition at the Zygos Gallery in Athens, with works of an impressionistic style. However, after his studies in Paris and his return to Greece he adopts a personal style with pronounced elements from comic strips and pop art. His broad subject range includes classicist buildings, ancient statues, human figures with garments from other eras, trains and railway stations, peacocks, strange cactus-like plants, theatre stages, etc. Past and present coexist in lyrical, often enigmatic images of a strong symbolic character and with a clear critical attitude towards social and political issues.
In more recent works from the ΄90s and early ‘00s he incorporates elements from the contemporary technological culture and satirizes the current political and cultural environment while denouncing consumerism.
He has also illustrated book covers and record sleeves, and published texts on art in magazines and newspapers. In 1981 he published his Album 1940-1974 (Papazissis, Athens) with 100 prints from the 1940 war, the Occupation and the Resistance, the Civil War and the 1967 dictatorship. In 2001 he published an album on Athens as seen in the postcards of old (Sideris, Athens).
In 1965 he received the 1st Prize in Europa Arte’s “Pergamenta d’Onore”, and in 1966 he was awarded at the ”Prix Europa de Peinture de la Ville d’Ostende”, the prize being a solo exhibition at the Musée des Beaux Arts d’Ostende. In 2012 he was awarded by the Academy of Athens for his overall oeuvre.
He has had solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad and has participated in dozens of group exhibitions. He took part in the 35th Biennale of Venice (1970), the Panorama of Greek Painting 1950-1975 (Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund 1976), Zeitgenoessische Griechische Malerei und Graphik (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, 1978), Europalia ΄82 (Brussels, Antwerp, 1982), etc. His works can be found in public and private collections in Greece and abroad.