Giorgos (Georges) loannou (1926 – 2017) was one of the most important painters of the post-war period in
Greece, regarded to be its main representative of Pop Art. Born in Athens in 1926, he studied painting in
Athens and Paris.
Ioannou became prominent in the late 60s with exhibitions in Greece, Belgium and Italy following his studies in
Paris in the early 60s. In his early work he used complex compositions with vivid color creating rich narratives
negating the rules of perspective, influenced by folk art, setting a stage for his figures depicting scenes
stemming from personal memories and experiences. He was dealing with the trauma of the abrupt end of his
childhood when the brutal Nazi occupation of Athens caused the financial ruin of his family and his
involvement in the Resistance in 1943-45.
His work was presented in numerous international exhibitions: 35th Biennale di Venezia (1970); “The
Panorama of Greek Painting 1950-1975”, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, 1976; Il Biennale delle Regioni, Italy;
Intergrafik, Berlin; ‘Regard ’73’, Brussels; Centre Culturel d’ Ostende; Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen,
Stuttgart; ‘Europa Arte’, Italy; Europalia 1982, Brussels, Antwerp; Salon International de l’Art Libre, Paris; EU
Building, Brussels et al. Galleries exhibiting his work include: Isy Brachot, Brussels; Grosvernor Galleries,
London; English Speaking Union, Edinburgh; Ateneului Roman, Bucharest; CNA Gallery, Chicago.
In 1959 he presented his first solo exhibition at the Zygos Gallery in Athens, with works of an impressionistic
style. However, after his studies in Paris and his return to Greece he adopts a personal style with pronounced
elements from comic strips and pop art. Past and present coexist in lyrical, often enigmatic images of a strong
symbolic character and with a clear critical attitude towards social and political issues. In his works, he often
incorporates elements from the contemporary technological culture and satirizes the current political and
cultural environment while denouncing consumerism.
In 1965 he received the 1st Prize in Europa Arte’s “Pergamenta d’Onore”, and in 1966 he was awarded at the
”Prix Europa de Peinture de la Ville d’Ostende”, the prize being a solo exhibition at the Musée des Beaux Arts
d’Ostende, which was held in April 1968. The jury included Hodin, Apollonio, Argan, Penrose, Restany and
Matney. The artist was also an award recipient at ‘Il Biennale delle Regioni’ and ‘Premio Internationale Europa
Arte’ in Italy.
In 1967 a military dictatorship regime was enforced in Greece. The need to react and confront the new reality
fundamentally influenced the course of his work, so he first used the expressive vocabulary of Pop Art – mainly
inspired by the style of comics (saturated flat color, strict black outline) – so as to confront the US backed
dictatorship (1967-1974).
After the fall of the Junta in 1974, Ioannou’s works combine features of Pop Art with elements of Surrealism,
which constitute an idiosyncratic painterly language, an independent trend in Greek painting of the period, as
stated by prominent art historians of the time.
Ioannou was contributing as a writer for major Greek newspapers and he was frequently the subject of
interviews and presentations of his work from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. In 1981 the Papazissis
publishing house published the art book ‘Album 1940-1974’ with one hundred monotypes. This body of work
was dealing with troubled historic periods of Greece, the Nazi Occupation of Athens, the Resistance
Movement, the Civil War and the Dictatorship of 1967-1974. In 2002 the I. Sideris publishing house published
the book ‘Athens through postcards from the past’ containing a part of his collection of postcards.
In 2012 he was awarded by the Academy of Athens for his overall oeuvre. Giorgos Ioannou passed away in
2017 in Athens, leaving behind a prolific body of work spanning over five decades.
In 2022 a retrospective exhibition of his work was presented at the City of Athens Art Gallery and in 2023 a
second retrospective exhibition was presented at Casa Bianca in Thessaloniki, Greece. Furthermore, Ioannou’s
work has been prominently featured in the exhibitions “Urbanography: City Life in the Decades 1950-1970”
(June 2023- May 2024) and “Democracy” (July 2024 – February 2025) at the National Gallery in Athens.
