The painter, poet, writer, scenographer, and costume designer Nikos Engonopoulos was born in Athens in 1907 and passed away in the same city in 1985.
He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Konstantinos Parthenis, Dimitrios Biskinis, Thomas Thomopoulos, and Yannis Kefallinos.
He traveled and apprenticed in European countries, becoming acquainted with contemporary art movements, while simultaneously coming into contact with Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art through his apprenticeship under Photis Kontoglou and Andreas Xyngopoulos.
In 1967, he was appointed Professor of Painting at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens.
He was also a founding member of the ‘Armos’ art group.
Following the spirit of his time, he identified elements of European modernism within Byzantine art. His work traces influences from the metaphysical painting of De Chirico, the circle of Dali, and Surrealism, which he adapted to the local Greek spirit and the notion of ‘Hellenicity’ (Greekness). Automatic writing accounts for the articulation—through realistic treatment—of dissimilar elements in his works, which derive their meaning from incidental contexts. He composed a juxtaposition of symbols referencing mythology and various periods of Greek history, from antiquity to Byzantium and from the pre-modern to the contemporary era; however, their interpretation is based on the functions of the unconscious. Through his body of work, he became the primary representative of a distinct, Greek-oriented conception of Surrealism.
His work was presented in solo and group exhibitions in Greece, Europe, and America. He participated in the Venice Biennale (1954) and the São Paulo Art Biennial (1955). Retrospective exhibitions were organized at the Moraitis School Society of Studies in 1977 and at the National Gallery in 1983.
He was awarded the First Prize for Poetry by the Ministry of Education in 1958 and the Gold Cross of the Order of George I in 1966 for his painting.