The painter Dikos (Konstantinos) Byzantios was born in Athens in 1924 and passed away in Mallorca in 2007.
He received his first painting lessons from his father, the painter Periklis Byzantios. He began his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1942—without entrance exams, as he was deemed an exceptional talent—attending the classes of K. Parthenis and Um. Argyros. In 1945, on a scholarship from the French Institute of Athens, he moved to Paris, where he eventually settled permanently in 1946. There, he attended classes at the Académie Julian and Académie de la Grande Chaumière, was initiated into the art of copper engraving by Dimitris Galanis, and joined a circle that included, among others, Christian Zervos, as well as major figures of the international avant-garde such as A. Giacometti and E. Ionesco. In the 1960s, he turned toward abstraction, which he abandoned around 1975 to return to figurative painting, featuring human forms rendered with problematic anatomy and spaces where geometric perspective is defied.
In 1985, the French government awarded him the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and in 1990, the title of Officier des Arts et des Lettres.
His first solo exhibition took place in 1951 in Paris, followed by 22 more in France (Paris, Amiens, Rouen, Metz, Chalon-sur-Saône), Athens, Nicosia, Antwerp, Zurich, and London. He also participated in numerous group exhibitions in Greece, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Cyprus.
His works are held in the Musée du Luxembourg, the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery (Athens), the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), the Benaki Museum, and the National Historical Museum – Lazaros Koundouriotis Mansion, among others.