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8 5/8 x 6 1/4 inches
15 x 13 inches behind glass in modern frame
Signed D. Tiniakos 1943 lower right and titled lower left
Light rippling
Dimitris Tiniakos (1920 – 1977) was a student at the Athens School of Fine Arts when this work was created.
[Bibliography: Dictionary of Greek Artists Volume 4, page 295].
[Dimitris Tiniakos, painter and engraver, was born in Andros in 1920. During his early youth, he discovered his passion for the Fine Arts. He originally started as a self-taught painter, with the publication of a work of his by a local newspaper the “New Step” which in 1935 was depicting a landscape. This work was the very first step of his career.
Five years later, in 1940, he exposes some of the projects in the national Exhibition of Amateur Painters drawing the attention of critics with, given his age, his rare skills. In the second year of the occupation, in 1941, he enters the Athens School of Fine Arts Tiniakos Athens, from which he graduated in 1947. K. Parthenis was his instructor in painting and G. Kefallinos in engraving. Hebegins his artistic course after graduating, by taking part in many national collective exhibitions and by organizing his own individual exhibitions for his work. He starts with features of realism in the works: “Xerrizoma”, “Homes in Polygon”, “red”, etc. and ends up to compositions with cubistic and tectonic implications.
In his work, which moves in the representational painting; landscapes, seascapes and still life are prefered. His compositions are distinguished by the harmonious proportions, the balanced arrangement of shapes and the spatial organization. He implements a variety of techniques such as oil painting, watercolor, wood engraving, etching, etc. most preferably in colored Indian ink.
He presented his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He took part in the International exhibition in São Paulo in 1953, and to the Biennale of Lugano in 1966. In 1989 he presented at the EPMAS retrospective portraits that stand out for their technical excellence and expressiveness of the depicted figures. Through the deformation of characteristics and paradoxical assignment in ambiguous surroundings, the artist aims to highlight the tragedy and the inwardness of human existence. His works are kept in EPMAS as well as in municipal galleries: Athens, Moschato, Nikaia, Patra; in the National Bank of Greece, the Ministry of Culture etc.
It is an undeniable fact that the passion of Tiniakos with engraving was rather significant. One of the greatest engravers of this generation, i.e. Kefallinos, Tassos, Katraki, Grammatopoulos, Moralis, Velissaridis, Paschali, Moschos, etc. He died in 1997 at the age of 77 years].
Research and documentation: Stelios Botsis – Art critic.