Regkos Polykleitos

He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts at the Nikolaos Lytras workshop (1920-1926). From 1930 to 1935 he continued his studies in Paris at the Grande Chaumiare Academy and the Louvre, while at the same time taking engraving lessons at Dimitris Galanis’ studio. His artistic education was completed with the study of the great painters in the museums of France, England, Spain, Italy, Austria and America.

Having started to exhibit in 1926, he presented his work in solo, group, Panhellenies and international exhibitions of painting and engraving, such as the 1st Biennale of Engraving at Cracow in 1966, the Annual Engraving Salon in Ancona in 1966 (gold medal for Greece) and 1968 and the Alexandria Biennale in 1957. He also took part in Parisian Salons and in the exhibitions of the Art Group, of which he was a founding member. In 1980 his work was presented in a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery and in 1983 at the Vafopouleio Cultural Center in Thessaloniki.

In Paris in 1934 he published an album with 21 woodcuts from Mt. Athos, with a preface by the well-known Byzantinologist Charles Deal. In the framework of his broader artistic creation, he was also involved with the illustration of literary magazines, the religious painting of churches and the painting of portable icons. He moreover published articles on art and did radio programs while from 1951 to 1969 he taught drawing at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, where he had settled in 1935.

His painting, which includes landscapes and portraits, still lifes and genre scenes, mythological subjects and religious representations, is characterized by a personal style and combines elements derived from the teachings of his professors, the works of Maleas and Papaloukas, the painting of the early Renaissance and Byzantine art and, finally, modern movements.