Artists

Yiannis Maniatakos

Press release

Four Paintings marks the fourth exhibition of Yiannis Maniatakos, the first outside of Greece, and coincides with the creation of his Estate that is comprised of paintings, sculptures, photography and a boat.

Born in 1935 in the Mani area of the Peloponnese, Maniatakos later established himself and spent the rest of his life with his family on the Cycladic island of Tinos, a place associated with the diversity of the building stone its inhabitants have been extracting for centuries: marble.

A sculptor by birth, Maniatakos taught and directed the historical and still presently active school of marble artisans and sculptors located at the hill-protected village of Pyrgos, the birthplace of modern masters Yiannoulis Halepas and Nikiforos Lytras, among others who were sent on a scholarship set up in the 19th century by the local church to study at the Fine Art Academy of Munich.

Alongside his teaching, that occupied him the most, he worked in the studio making sculptures and whenever time allowed, he sailed around the Aegean on his handmade boat.