Spyros Papaloukas
1892 - 1957
He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1909-1916) and went on to study in Paris, at the Grande Chaumière and Julian academies. In 1922 he participated in the Asia Minor Campaign as a war artist. The works he made were destroyed in Smyrna, after having being on display at the Zappeion Hall in Athens. In 1923 he retired to Aegina and then to Mount Athos, and painted the works that went on display in his first solo exhibition, in 1924 in Thessaloniki. In 1925 he lived on Lesbos for six months, became professor at the Cottage Industry School and made copies after the mosaics in the Church of Agios Loukas. In 1926 he visited Salamina and the following year was commissiont to paint the Metropolis in Amfissa. It was then that he also started to work as a stage designer. He was a founding member of the 'Techni' group of artists (1936) and one of the publishers of the art review Το Τρίτο Μάτι [The third eye]. In 1940 he became the director of the Municipal Gallery in Athens. From 1943 to 1951 he taught at the National Technical University in Athens and in 1956 became professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He is one of the pioneers of 20th-century Greek art. Having assimilated the teachings of Byzantine art and introducing the achievements of the contemporary European movements which he had explored in Paris, he painted landscapes, portraits, still-life paintings and everyday scenes.