Nikos Nikolaou (Hydra, 1909 – Athens, 27 July 1986) was a distinguished Greek painter, printmaker and sculptor of what is known as the “Thirties’ Generation”. He was born in Hydra in 1909, but after the end of World War I his family moved to Athens and settled at Plaka. In 1929, Nikolaou was admitted to the Athens School of Fine Arts and studied painting under Oumvertos Argyros and Konstantinos Parthenis.
In the School of Fine Arts he met the painter Yannis Moralis, with whom they became lifelong friends.
He presented his first works in 1932 at the exhibition of the School’s students. In 1935 he joined the “Free Artists” group and participated in an exhibition at Parnassus. Together with Moralis, in 1937 he left to continue his studies in Paris and Rome. The war of 1940 forced him to give up his studies and return to Athens.
After the war, Nikolaou devoted himself to painting. He participated in the founding and the exhibitions of the “Armos” group, and in 1947 he had his first solo exhibition at the Romvos art gallery. Starting in 1949, he was commissioned to create fresco murals in various public buildings among which the Panteios School (today’s Panteion University).
In 1954 he began his collaboration with the Art Theatre of Karolos Koun, designing the stage sets and costumes for many productions. In 1964 he moved to Aegina with his wife, Angela Zoumboulaki. The same year he was elected professor of drawing at the Athens School of Fine Arts where he taught for a decade, also serving as its director during the dictatorship. He was a contributor to Nea Hestia magazine.
In the 1970s Nikolaou started painting sea pebbles in his own unique way. At the same time he went into printmaking, book illustrations and sculpture, although the latter is the least known aspect of his work. He died in Athens in 1986. His one published book, on ‘The adventure of the line in art’, came out shortly after his death (Η περιπέτεια της γραμμής στην τέχνη, Athens 1986).
His painting work is inspired primarily by nature, but also by archaic art forms, from which it borrows its expressive simplicity of design and the flat earthly colours. The abstractionism of a modern style is combined with the greek light’s clear line.
The works of Nikos Nikolaou have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He represented Greece at the Venice Biennale in 1936 and 1964 and at the Biennale of Sao Paulo in 1957. An exhibition of his works was hosted at the National Gallery of Greece in 1991. In the spring of 2005, the Benaki Museum organized a major retrospective; a little later, the same exhibition travelled to the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Berlin.

Solo exhibitions
2017 Bookstore of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, Thessaloniki, Greece
2017 National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (Eynard Mansion), Αthens, Greece
2005 Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2000 Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
1998 Adam Galleries, Αthens, Greece
1994 Parnassos Gallery, Αthens, Greece
1991 National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens, Greece
1989 Κέντρο Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών Άποψη, Athens, Greece
1989 Hydra School of Fine Arts, Hydra, Greece
1988 Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
1985 Αίθουσα Τέχνης Εποχές, Κifisia, Greece
1985 Αίθουσα Τέχνης Άνεμος, Kifisia, Greece
1984 Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
1979 Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
1972 Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
1965 Athens Art Gallery, Hilton, Athens, Greece
1962 Hellenic American Union, Athens, Greece
1961 Athenian Institute of Technology, Athens, Greece
1961 Armos Gallery, Athens, Greece
1961 Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
1948 Romvos Gallery, Athens, Greece

Group exhibitions (selection)
2015 Small Paintings 2015, Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
2008 Aegina of painters, Melina Mercouri Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
2006 Paris-Athens 1863-1940, National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens, Greece
2000 Classical Memories in Greek Art, Onassis Cultural Center – Olympic Tower, New York, USA
1999 Plastic art testimony from modern Greece, National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, Romania
1998 Modern Greek Engraving and Drawings 1900-1960, Skoufa Gallery, Athens, Greece
1994 Oi Daskaloi (the teachers), Skoufa Gallery, Athens, Greece
1986 Settanta artisti da 12 paesi dipingono “l΄amore e la Pace”, Chiesa Santo Spirito, Florence, Italy
1985 The Hellenic Dimension, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, USA
1981 Modern Greek Engraving Exhibition, Greek Consulate in New York, New York, USA
1980 Masks, Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
1975 Group show, Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
1973 Salon de Mai, Musee du Grand Palais, Paris, France
1970 EXPO 1970, Museum of Fine Arts, Osaka, Japan
1965 Summer Group Show 1965, Athens Art Gallery Hilton, Αthens, Greece
1964 32 Biennale di Venezia 1964, Venice, Italy
1959 3rd Biennale of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
1959 Salon de l΄Art Libre, Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1957 IV Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1953 Mostra di pittura hellenica contamporanea, Galleria Nazionale d΄ Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
1949 Exhibition of the artist group Armos, Zappeion Megaron, Athens, Greece
1935 Free Artists, Parnassos Gallery, Αthens, Greece