DIMITRIS MYTARAS

Dimitris Mytaras was born in 1934 in Halkida, Greece. He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts - ASFA (1953-1957) with Yannis Moralis and Spyros Papaloukas. He received a state scholarship to study stage design at the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts Décoratifs (1961-1964), and interior decoration at the Metiers d'Art, in Paris. Between 1964 and 1972 he directed the Interior Decoration Workshop of the Technological Educational Institution of Athens. Together with his wife and with the support of the Municipality of Halkida, he founded a School of Painting at his birthplace in 1978. In 1969 he was appointed assistant in the Painting Workshop of the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he has taught regularly since 1975.

In his art, the most prominent features are a classical structure, a balanced design, a vivid palette subjects, and subjects in intense movement. An expressionistic atmosphere, along with an obvious mood for social critique, are prevalent in all the periods in the last thirty years; in series such as Photographic Documents (1966-70), Epitaphs (1971-76), Portraits (1977-87), and Theatre Scenes (1988-91).

Professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Dimitris Mytaras has exhibited in many of the world's capitals and has participated in virtually every important Biennial. §One of the most important and prolific painters in contemporary Greece, Dimitris Mytaras has had more than twenty individual exhibitions of his work - in Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Larissa, Heracleion, Chania, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Rome, Paris, and elsewhere. He has also had work in more than thirty group exhibitions around the world, including such major events as the Alexandria (1958 and 1966); Paris Young Artists (1960); São Paulo (1966); and Venice Biennale (1972).