The painter Yannis Mitarakis was born in Alexandria in 1898 and passed away in Athens in 1963.
He spent his childhood in Greece and graduated from the High School of Chios in 1915. Coming from a family of cotton merchants, he studied agronomy in Paris at the Grignon Institute (1915-1921), while simultaneously engaging in poetry. Immediately afterwards, he turned to painting, studying for a short period in Paris at the Academies A. Lhote and La Palette, under L. Fauconnier. After traveling to Italy and Spain, he came to Greece in 1929. Together with M. Tombros, N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, and others, they founded the “Art Group 1930” (Omada Techni 1930). Later, in 1949, alongside G. Bouzianis, S. Vassiliou, G. Gounaropoulos, and others, they co-founded the “Stathmi” group, actively participating in their exhibitions.
His works, primarily landscapes with a strong internal character, fluctuate between expressionism and abstraction, influenced by the School of Paris and Cubism.
He held solo exhibitions in Athens, Alexandria, and Thessaloniki. He also participated in group exhibitions in Athens (Panhellenics 1938, 1939-prize, 1940, 1948, 1952, 1960, 1963), Thessaloniki, Paris (Salon d’Automne 1921, Salon des Indépendants 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1930, Exposition Internationale 1937-silver medal), Sofia, the Venice Biennale (1934, 1936, 1940), the Alexandria Biennale (1955), the São Paulo Biennale (1957-prize), New York (1958-Guggenheim Prize nominee), the Smithsonian Institution in Washington (1959), and others.
His works are held in the National Gallery of Greece, the Municipal Galleries of Athens, Rhodes, Patras, and Larissa, the Benaki Museum, the National Bank of Greece, the Athens Technological Institute, museums in Alexandria and Sofia, as well as in private collections in Greece, Sweden, France, Egypt, the USA, and elsewhere.