The painter, graphic designer, poet, prose writer, and translator Karolos Tsizek was born in Brescia in 1922 and passed away in Thessaloniki in 2013.
Of Czech descent, he settled in Thessaloniki in 1929 and obtained Greek citizenship in 1987.
He studied History and Archaeology (1950) and Italian Philology (1968) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he taught Italian for more than 25 years in the Department of Italian Language and Literature and was declared an honorary doctor (2004).
His acquaintance with N.G. Pentzikis in 1940 influenced both his life and his art. He collaborated with the innovative literary journal Kochlias (1945–1948), where he came under the influence of the painter and graphic designer Giannis Svoronos. He initially produced drawings, followed by monotypes, then collages made of monotypes, and finally line drawings and mixed media works. He engaged in the graphic arts from 1949 onwards, winning awards and distinctions in competitions. As a graphic designer, his name became synonymous with the incomparably aesthetic covers of the literary journal Diagonios—where he also contributed as an art critic—and the Diagonios Publications of Dinos Christianopoulos. Erudite, inventive, and multilingual, he served as the artistic advisor (1974–1978) to the “Diagonios” Little Art Gallery.
His record includes 3 solo exhibitions in Thessaloniki (1967, 1995, 1998) and various group exhibitions in Athens and Thessaloniki (e.g., 4 at the “Techni” Macedonian Artistic Society in 1969, 1975, 1981, 1990, and 109 at the “Diagonios” Little Art Gallery between 1974 and 1993).