Periklis Vyzantios was a Greek painter of 20th century. He worked in the genres of impressionism, postimpressionism and expressionism.
Background
Periklis Vyzantios was born on January January 16, 1893 in Athens, Greece. His father, Konstantinos Vyzantios, was an artillery officer, his mother was Merope Vyzantios.
Periklis had an elder brother Christos and an elder sister Nina.
Education
Periklis Vyzantios studied at the School of Makris and learned the basics of painting in the workshop of Evangelos Ioannidis. In 1910, Periklis came to Munich in order to study law, but the passion for art was stronger and he travelled to Paris. In the capital of France, Vyzantios became a student of the School of Fine Arts and had attended the Académie Julian from 1911 till 1917.
Periklis Vyzantios started his seven-year military service in Greece in 1915. While serving, he took part at the Greek-Turkish War in Asia Minor as a war correspondent along with Greek painters Pavlos Rodokanakis and Spiros Papalukas, depicting war and genre scenes from 1921 to 1922, for example, the Trial of the Six, some sketches of which were featured in the Athenian periodicals. The works of three painters were presented at the War exhibition organized in the Athens Zappeion Hall in spring of 1922 and later in Smyrna. The exhibition had a great success.
Military service didn’t disturb Vyzantios to continue his artistic activity. So, in 1916, the artist opened his workshop in Athens and had his debut solo show. A year after, Periklis was among the founders of the artistic group called ‘Techni’ which main goal was to fight against conservatism in art. At the same period, Vyzantios worked as a stage designer.
One more organization in the creation of which the artist took part in 1928 became the art club Atelier (later called the State Art Centre) which soon gathered almost all famous artists by the time. Two years later, as a stage designer of the National Theatre of Greece in Athens, Periklis Vyzantios designed the stage decorations for the Aristophanes’s comedy Peace. In 1934, Vyzantios presented his artworks at the Venice Biennale and along with the painter Aleka Stylou-Diamantopoulou founded the first free private painting school in Athens which had functioned till the occupation of Greece in 1941. The Biennale was followed three years later by the Paris Exposition Universelle.
In 1938, Vyzantios became the chairman of the Association of Greek Painters, and the next year, he became the president of the Athens School of Fine Arts branch opened on the Hydra island.
During the Second World War, the artist created his famous poster called War Lottery.
After the war, Periklis Vyzantios had a great number of solo exhibitions. In 1971, the artist started his autobiography but didn’t finished it until his death. However, the unfinished book was published in 1995.
Euphrosyne, great great grandchild of L.Kountourioti
The Square of Sparta
Ionian Alley
A Horse-drawn Carriage
Hunger
Portrait of a Girl
Hydra
Boat with Sails
Orel
Sightseeing Tour
Summer in Hydra
Self-Portrait
Figures
Libyan Sea
Interior
Coach
Self-Portrait
Hydra
Port
Hydra
Portrait of a Woman
Interior
Hydra
Bistro
Still life
Acropolis
Still life with Brushes
Connections
Periklis Vyzantios married Froso Skoubourdi in 1923. A year later, the couple had their first-born, whose name was Constantine. He later became a painter as his father, and lived and worked in France under the pseudonym Dikos Vyzantios.
Periklis Vyzantios had also a daughter, Marilena Liakopulu.