The painter and sculptor Kostas Iliadis was born in 1903 in Athens, where he also passed away in 1991.
In 1914, his mother, recognizing his talent for painting, introduced him to G. Roilos, and he began attending the Sunday painting classes at the “Mikro Polytechneio” (Little Polytechnic). He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts under G. Roilos, G. Iakovidis, Sp. Vikatos, and Nikolaos Lytras, and sculpture under Thomas Thomopoulos (1920–1927). In his youth, he worked at the studio of the renowned photographer Georgios I. Boukas. After winning the Averoff Painting Prize in a Panhellenic Competition in 1929, he left for Paris on a three-year scholarship (1930–1933), where he attended painting classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and studied printmaking at the studio of Demetrios Galanis, who influenced his painting style.
Upon returning to Greece, he taught freehand drawing and decorative composition at the Greek Handicraft Society–Diplareios School (1934–1940). In 1952, he founded the Fine Arts Training Center in Athens, where he taught freehand drawing, composition, color, nude studies, and the application of materials for eight years. In 1960, a preparatory studio for drawing and architecture began operating there, training candidates for the Athens School of Fine Arts and the National Technical University of Athens. Under the guidance of G. Chatzopoulos, he specialized in the conservation of paintings and restored artworks in galleries and collections in Athens and Paris.
Notable in his work is a spirit of experimentation, which continued even when the artist was well advanced in age. Starting with nudes and portraits rendered with an academic and eclectic tendency, he transitioned toward abstraction in the late 1950s, eventually incorporating found objects and moving into constructivist sculpture.
He was a member of the “Omas Techni” (Art Group) and a founding member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.
In 1938, he was awarded the State Silver Medal for the execution of public decorative works. In 1984, the Municipality of Athens awarded him a gold medal for his artistic creation.
He presented his works in numerous Panhellenic Exhibitions (1938, 1939, 1940, 1948, 1957, 1963, 1967, 1969), Biennials (Venice 1934, São Paulo 1969), Parisian salons (e.g., Salon d’Automne, Salon des Tuileries), other international exhibitions, and two retrospective exhibitions (1979, 1985).
His works can be found in the National Gallery, the Athens Municipality Permanent Collection, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the National Technical University of Athens, the Bank of Greece, the National Bank of Greece, and elsewhere, as well as in private collections in Greece and abroad.