Technique: Oil on glass.
Signed: Οn the lower right "D. Tiniakos"
[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 and particularly obvious in his work like this
one. 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.