Diamantis Diamantopoulos

Diamantis Diamantopoulos was born in Magnesia, Asia Minor, in 1914. In the aftermath of the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922, he moved to Athens. While a student, he exhibited at Atelier (1930) and Asylo Technis (1931). He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1931 to 1936, with Dimitrios Biskinis and Konstantinos Parthenis. He traveled to Italy and France, where he encountered modernist painting. In the 1940s he held three solo exhibitions—at Spiti tou Philotechnou (1943 and 1944) and at Rombos Gallery (1949). He then spent two decades working in seclusion, away from the art scene. He reemerged in the 1970s, with three solo shows at Ora (1975, 1980, 1982). In 1978 the National Gallery in Athens organized a retrospective of his work, and in 1982 he represented Greece at the Venice Biennale. In 1975 he published the essay “The Work of Painting” in the annual review Chroniko. He painted interiors, portraits, soldiers, and construction workers, focusing on working-class figures. His main stylistic characteristics are his simplified, stylized forms and sparse palette. He died in Athens in 1995.