Marthas Takis

He studied architecture at the National Technical University (1924-1929). During his studies and after the recommendation of Dimitris Pikionis, he taught drawing for three years at the Biotechnic School of Athens. During the period 1930-1960 he served as Lecturer to the seat of Descriptive and Projective Geometry and Perspective Sketching at the National Technical University, while in 1960 he was elected Professor of Freehand Drawing at the Architectural School of the National Technical University, remaining in that position till his death. He also taught at the Officers School of the Military Services, the Evelpidon (Military Cadet) School and worked as an architect for the Ministry of Health (1937-1939), while in 1945 at the directive of the School of Architecture he became Professor of Architectural Design. He took no formal painting lessons.

He was repeatedly distinguished in Panhellenic competitions, winning first prize, organized solo shows and took part in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, among which were the Salon de l’Art Libre in 1959 in Paris, where he won the Diplome d’Honneur and the Sao Paolo Biennale of 1961. After his death his work was presented in solo and group exhibitions, as well as retrospectives at the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki in 1990 and the Municipal Gallery of Athens in 1991. He was also interested in art on a theoretical level, and published articles in newspapers and magazines that examined its social role as well as the nature of the coexistence of painting and architecture.

Starting with figurative painting, which included portraits, still lifes, nudes and seascapes, and echoed the doctrines of fauvism and expressionism, in the Fifties he moved on to abstraction, in the context of which he experimented with certain materials, lending a structural texture in this way to his painting surfaces; in so doing he introduced symbolism into his works and created compositions which were constructivist in character.