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Spyros Vassiliou (Greek language: Σπύρος Βασιλείου; June 16, 1903 – March 22, 1985) was a Greek painter, printmaker, illustrator, and stage designer. He became widely recognized for his work starting in the 1930s, when he received the Benaki Prize from the Athens Academy. The recipient of a Guggenheim Prize for Greece (in 1960), Spyros Vassiliou's works have been exhibited in galleries throughout Europe, in the United States, and Canada.
Spyros Vassiliou became recognized as a painter of the transformation of the modern urban environment, depicting with an unwavering eye the sprawl of urban development that surrounded his home in Athens, under the walls of the Parthenon. His artistic identity combined monochrome backgrounds and the unorthodox positioning of objects. He paid homage to the Byzantine icon by floating symbols of everyday Greek life on washes of gold or sea-blue color, very much like the religious symbols that float on gold in religious art. With oils and watercolours, he painted natural and urban space, portraits, still-life, and scenes of daily living, combining selective elements of cubism and impressionism. A member of an important community of Greek artists in the mid-20th century, Vassiliou was known as one of the first Greek pop-art painters.
During the years of the German occupation of Greece (1941-1945), when painting supplies were scarce, Vassiliou turned to engraving and woodcuts. Works such as The Burial of Palamas and The Mourning of the Kalavrytans (1943) became famous in Greece as symbols of freedom. His activity during those years also included the illustration and underground publication of three manuscript volumes as well as woodcut prints for magazines.
Over the years, dozens of Vassiliou's illustrations and paintings were printed on covers of books and magazines including The Athenian (magazine) and children's magazine To Rodi, where he also critiqued children's drawings.
The Greek National Tourism Organization used ones of Vassiliou illustrations, the "Island of Poros", as a promotional poster for Greece in 1948.
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