About the artist

He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1933-1938) and, as a scholar of the Academy of Athens, went on to study in Paris, at the École des Beaux-Arts, and the Julian and Colarossi academies. He returned to Greece in 1940. His varied exhibition agenda includes participation in international events (Alexandria Biennale 1955, Sao Paulo Bienal 1957, Documenta Kassel 1964, 1975); he received many awards (UNESCO Award at the Venice Biennale, 1960; Gold Medal of the City of Ostend, 1961; Commander of the Phoenix, 1966; Gottfried von Herder Award, Vienna, 1978). A few months after his death, the Yannis and Zoe Spyropoulos Foundation came into being. In 1992 the house-museum was inaugurated in Ekali, a northern suburb of Athens, and the Yannis Spyropoulos Award for gifted young artists was awarded for the first time.   Leading a committed exploration from figurative art to abstraction, he became one of the main exponents of abstraction in Greece.