Apparently, Ianni Nikou’s Painting is tuned to the wavelength of Historic Surrealism. On one hand, his themes are an epic synthesis on Gods and Fiends, a sacrament through which us, as an audience, are initiated-and finally entangled-into the strange world of the Subconscious: Mythology, ancient archetypes, witchcraft or metaphysical insight are called for, and generate more and new pictures into our minds. As well, their monumental size and the intensity of the allegoric message passed on to us, help us to connect Nikou’s work to the principles of Science Fiction. This is one even more eccentric way possessed by the painter to carry us away, along with his own fleet into the secrets of this traveling spirit.
On the other hand, from a strictly historical point of view, his work could be placed on the threshold, the minute and rarely captured transitional instant in the History of Art, when the “Neoclassic” expression was fading away into the “Romantic” style. And indeed, it may not at all be due to chance, that the implicated “narrative” behind each and every one of this paintings is built on the “Romantic” part of the myth; the descent to Ade, Death and Resurrection, Darkness and Light; all Nikou’s themes have been derived from the same repertoire, the one of the major and oldest ventures of Human Spirit.
Eventually, what we witness in Ianni Nikou’s work is miraculous; his brush seems to capture on canvas the “eternal moment”; the preciousness and uniqueness of a particular moment in history, and at the same time, the glitter of Eternity within its limits. This rare and exceptional quality, makes his works claim their place as relics in many museums; a quality that seemed to be forever more erased on the map of contemporary painting…

Giuliano Serafini

Art Historian and Critic – Italy

Article in the Monthly Art Review “Terzo Occhio”
(Published on the occasion of a series of Ianni Nikou’s one-man shows in Florence, Italy, 1987)

Analyzing Iannis Nikou’s work, we witness, even in paintings of different periods, an identical concept of mystery, solitude and astonishment derived from “another world”.
The Greek artist’s symbolic code does not coincide in all aspects with the typical symbolism of historical surrealism. Nikou’s personal, so to say, code, is more expanded and his cultural constants are obviously older and more classical.
In fact, in Nikou’s work we find the happy coexistence of classicism together with the surrealistic imagination, materialized through techniques of different origin; all this performed in drawing of high quality and exalted color, which compose characteristic elements of the school of magic realism… Indeed, by the means of his classical cultural background, Nikou is recreating images of violent muscularity, Bacchanal energy and eroticism, transforming them into visions of crystalline beauty and serenity.

Therefore, taking into consideration the amazing variety of Nikou’s subjects, and his particular compositions which are fully of symbolic correlation, we can compare him to another Greek creator; Lucian, the ancient author who in his book “A true story” is describing a planet of dreams, where everyone could choose a dream corresponding with his own mentality and personality… As compared with this ancient merchant of dreams, Iannis Nikou is eventually suggesting a personal utopia, daring and universal; the creation – through his paintings – of dreams common for all of us, in the name of Art…

Mauro Bocci, Art Historian – Italy

Article in the Newspaper “Il Secolo XIX”
June 1987, Genoa.

It has been repeatedly said, giving for granted the meaning of such statement, that Iannis Nikou is considered on of the most representative painters of Hellenic surrealism. But when examining Nikou’s work, and when endeavoring above all to analyze some “definitive” works of his by means of a comparative use of the preparatory drawings, in the effort to decipher not only the whole (and immediately emotional) meaning brought about by the evident violence of images and colour, that is to say effect, but also, and better still, a formal structure (a way of seeing and thence a style), it seems to me that the term “surrealistic” remains an extremely general indication. 

There is not the least doubt that Nikou’s painting, or better still his imagination, belongs to the super-real. And it is likewise clear that, on the whole, technical solutions are dependent on a typical surrealistic practical skill, int eh meaning of historical surrealism, with a particular inclination towards hallucinating limpid smoothness. Although from this point of view, the “soft” elements, that is to say the object-dissolving elements, are generally scarce, whilst there dominates, up to a point, a certain “muscularity”, an accentuation of the grotesque characters, a penchant for irony more than for a tragic background. And the existence of this penchant can be seen not so much and not only in the individual figures, as in their crowding, in their thronging and swarming in senseless actions, according to a fully allusive narrative method.

As regards dramatic reference, wherever this be explicit, as in “The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse”, the figures have a tendency to come to the fore and to simplify themselves into perverse devices, and this precisely because of their stiffening into an emblem and “ad absurdo” becoming colder and more static.

But these are merely external and immediate aspects.

The very principle of metamorphosis, not to speak of the flaking of figures into the environment, which is so typical of the surreal mode, is after all relative enough, and in these few cases where it can be traced, is not even put into evidence with force: apart from the dissemination, for instance, of the over-hanging “allegory of the Zodiac” where it is, if ever, the reading of Bosch that acts on the imagination of the artist. And in fact, in a painting such as “The Parade of Sins” so full of erotic and sacrificial allusions, morbid and also somewhat forced, with that touch of orientalism that shifts one’s attention to an area between Victorian and Decadent, the mutation is kept secret: the muddle of those compact bodies, an obsessive, almost tangible muddle, has the upper hand over any other indication. Which however exists.

Nikou’s way of painting thus finds its place in a thoroughly particular position, and its true nature (including its sources) will have to be recuperated in his drawings, not only in the autonomous ones, which reveal his inventiveness and technique, but also in those that, later on, in the actual painting are, so to speak, drowned in the complexity of the composition and in the expression requirements of colour.

What I mean to say is that in his generally surrealistic framework one detects a principle of over-reality, of fantastic, that comes from a more distant cultural line, and this is what forms the genesis of Nikou’s painting.

So the figure that, dancing in the air, follows the spectral horse of the Apocalypse is set out, in contrast with the rest of the painting, according to a neo-classical pattern, as well as some figures and anatomical fragments that can indistinctly be seen in the mad zodiacal accumulation assume attitudes of strength which are between the Manneristic and the Romantic.

In the same way, the chained figure appearing in a drawing of 1985, brought down to a state of bestiality perhaps more out of fear than out of an innate savagery, sends one back even too openly to the Gothic, so that one could even suppose that some attention has been given to the attempts of such artists as Fuseli and Blake.

It is as though in Nikou two fin de siècle meets. The drawing of a female winged figure emerging from the water and holding an ampulla in her left hand, for refinement of outline and inexplicable symbolic charm – a probable decadent re-reading of classicism – recalls certain nymphs by Max Klinger, letting ambiguous connections appear with the myth of Eros and Phyche.

All elements which are extraneous, one would say, to Nikou’s way of painting, or else that have been diverted to grotesque issues.

It would then be a case of mere assemptions exasperated, by a king of obsession of the critic for the ascertainment of sources and metaphors, if after the also stylistically modernized prophetism of “The Sabbath” (1984), a painting such as Ulysses of 1986, would not allow a king of oscillation to be perceived between phantastic intentions (and even towards a new science-fiction allegory), and oneiric recoveries of mythological tradition. A scheme perhaps unconscious, but strengthened by some definite recurrences, such as for instance “Hercules in the Kingdom of Hades” of 1970, and “Persephone in the Kingdom of Hades” of 1978, which two paintings are so clearly united, – at years – by an identical conception of mystery, solitude and astonishment in a “word beyond”.

In Ulysses the ousting of the components and a stricter formal and synthetic organization are explicit; not only owing to the presence of one single character, a fact that stresses the sensation of exile, but also for a relationship that comes thus into being with a nature that is strongly emblematic, is not upset and forced in a “super real” fashion, not “invented”, and perhaps “sublime”, exactly according to pre-romantic concept.

A piece of work “Ulysses”, that, by bringing to the fore the mythological line of abandonment, oblivion, solitude, already hinted at with “Hercules” and “Persephone”, seems to be moving towards “metaphysical” solutions, to which a visionary such as Arnold Böcklin might not be extraneous, in an atmosphere which does find its confirmation in a painting in my opinion extremely full of significance. I mean “The Enchanted Forest” where “super-real” (not the surreal) and “sublime” come to meet. One could say for the time being that Nikou has landed at a point where a choice has to be made between the different tensions that have characterized him. One of these tensions could direct him to a greater and greater, more refined and softer metaphorical organization.

The other one, by no means less interesting, but quite different, to an actual narration pertaining to the phantasy kind, with some trace of a more or less scince-fiction kind (see for instance “The Liberator,” 1983, “The Sabbath”, 1984, “The allegory of the Zodiac”, 1984) at which some Japanese and Americans artists have landed with remarkable illustrative sequences.

Roberto Sanesi

Art Critic, Poet. Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera (Milan) and at the University of Verona. 

“…Iannis Nikou was worn probably in the early part of the 16th century, somewhere in northern Italy. As it is, Nikou is a contemporary painter immersed in an ongoing reinterpretation of classical mythology and, to a lesser extent, biblical iconography. He shares with his historical predecessors a Gravure technique and a predilection for a natural environment that is sumptuous and luxuriant…

Iannis Nikou is obviously one of the well-known triumvirates of Renaissance revivalists that includes Jonathan Norths and Jack Beal…”

1. S. Marcou                                                                          

President of Greek Museum “Nobel” -Art Historian

RAI, Florence, 12.09.1986               

The paintings of Iannis Nikou

After his last one man show (1998), Iannis Nikou makes his comeback this year with an exhibition presenting over seventy works comprising oil paintings and drawings. His themes are inspired by various stages and aspects of human civilization and its expression. The dominant elements in his paintings are the symbolic, allegory and the metaphysic.

In particular, the overall viewing of Nikou΄s artistic production, which consists of old and new works covering the period between 1983 and 2003, imposes a fresh classification. Irrespective of the time needed for the completion of each work, this new organizing method is determined by an inner criterion, that of content, that is, the idea that the painter 11expresses each time. The birth of man is his starting point. A cosmogonic event depicted in the form of a human chain Evolution: 1988, from the first appearance of the rational creature till its most extreme and dynamic evolution. Since the individual compositions portray this course, all his paintings simultaneously become the allegory of a labyrinthine stroll in and beyond the multidimensional space of human existence. It slips smoothly from ancient mythology and the medieval world to modern Greek history and then catapults us to the great events of contemporary times. From there, the creator, in line with the spatio-temporal precipitation of space, carries us away on universal trips that find their metaphysical equal in the building of a new world in a place outside planet Earth, in an unexplored solar system God ΄s Workers. Consequently, drawing his inspiration essentially means having a treasure up a universal ΄library΄ composed of unsurpassable products of human thought. From mythology and the great masterpieces of Greek and European literature Homer ΄s epics, Dante΄s Divine Comedy to documented history and its sources, and from legends of knights and folk traditions to the most popular types of contemporary literature, such as the historical novel and science fiction best sellers. Lastly, he draws his inspiration from great books of humanity such as the Bible where he is fascinated by the eschatological passages, as well as from the texts on Eastern philosophy (Veda) and turns images and events from today into an artistic allegory (Trilogy: Angels in the City: 2001, clearly referring to the terrorist attack on September 11th and the collapse of the Twin Towers). Everything, however, is incorporated in one unified narration that basically summarizes the eventful evolution of the collective consciousness and knowledge of the individual.

The artistic language, clear and legible, becomes the best way to express, with clarity, the ideology, ideas and views concerning the current politico-cultural events of a world which looks forward to its remaking. Also, it is the morphological solution that gives a lucid shape to visions – images that are constantly flowing, as he himself, admits, in his mind, aspiring at the same time to approach the audience and achieve its widespread understanding. So, at times he uses symbols that are internationally well-known, and at other times, creatures born from his imagination and visions dominate on his canvas, creatures which demolish the conventional view of the world and at the same time, unexpectedly, build a different image of the world (God΄s Workers, Eclipse, Bad moon rising, The Spirits of the City, The Garden of Evil, Perseus and Medusa, Evolution, The Sins of the Pious). Similarly, in the first case, these elements are recorded in the chain of the constantly shifting cultural experience, while the rest comprise the creator΄s personal tradition. Nevertheless, he cannot escape from visual clarity, even in his most surprising compositions. That is, those compositions that cause the same feeling of unease when we approach them as we feel when we translate a foreign text whose words, we understand yet cannot grasp their meaning. Here, the discernible forms are the vehicles of a powerful symbolism whose comprehension and interpretation demands that one decode the visual points of the narration. Thus, the first and main focus of the critical study of his work is the gradual unveiling of the image itself and the approach of the content though multiple readings, not only of the artistic myth, but of the same composite model of which it is made.

Combined with the above, it is clear that Nikou, refusing any formalistic experimentation which tends to become the aim instead of the medium or carrier of meaning in contemporary artistic production, seeks to find a practical agreement between form and content. In this way he manages to approach, with a clarity similar to the tonal clarity of great musical compositions, the meanings which he wishes to convey. Besides as the artist himself states, “art without a message is art without content”. On the other hand, one would say that this formal distinctness functions as an intelligent and methodic way of enchanting the recipient and capturing her/his attention. The viewer is first magnetized by the aesthetics of the image. Here, the balanced arrangement of the shapes and forms, and the harmony of colors act as stimulants which make the viewer stand before the work and then attempt to read and understand it.

On the other hand, the specific aesthetics and technique employed by Iannis Nikou reveal his knowledge of collective culture, education and his personal culture. In specific, although he chooses to express himself with oils and drawings, the teachings he received when studying mosaics and wall-painting, cinema and photography are deeply assimilated both in the overall presentation of his themes -size and organization of the composition- and in their special features – angel from which the scene portrayed is viewed. Additionally, his knowledge of stage designing and his experience in costume-design find an outlet in the detailed presentation of figures from past times in full dress.

By probing into his themes, we discover primitive fears in their ontological foundation. He himself is particularly drawn by the invisible which, although existent, cannot be perceived by our sensory eyes. It is precisely the idea of being aware of that which we are ignorant of that he tries to shape. He is also preoccupied with the meaning of the experienced past, and our relationship with that and the world΄s history over various periods of time. 

With a caustic mood and bitter humor, he comments on man΄s treatment of the natural environment, as one can see in the Fishing of the hippocampus. At the bottom of the sea filled with treasures, the egocentricity of the microscopic man reaches and perhaps surpasses the giant seahorse in size. The ΄protagonist΄ ingenious and the same time foolish, forgetting that he has long stopped being the center of the universe, continues to behave with inexcusable destructive conceit against nature which transcends man. He overlooks the frightening consequences of the ecological imbalance which he himself causes, and though his utilitarian perception, he turns the underwater world into a place for exploiting only material wealth. So, we will see those experiments creating conditions for life on other planets, which used to be scenarios for science fiction, nowadays portray the new reality God΄s Workers which is already here.

Lastly, whether it is international or subconscious, he reveals his opinion regarding the opposite sex. Here, the woman, whether in the form of a goddess, spirit or angel (Angel Trap, Thoughtful Angel, The Spring of the Angels, Angel at the Far End of the City), always maintains the distinctive features that make her desirable. Is it a reminder of the solid nature of the material world? The fertile woman, identified with the worldly and the definitiveness of the objective world, and at the same time, the woman as the moon, that is the woman as the unknown planet with an inner world which seems ciphered and mysterious to the male partner (The World of Women I-II).

Presented around these focal points, Nikou΄s artistic production is shown to be exuberant and many-sided to the point that it occasionally makes it difficult to classify. This is nevertheless a necessary process, not only for methodological reasons, but also for more substantial reasons, since it is through this process that it can be dialectically presented as part of artistic production as a whole, incorporated in the continuation of the historical evolution of painting and its relationship with tradition be expanded. Nikou, deeply familiarized with the art of the past, is not afraid of the tradition that has already won universal acceptance. To the contrary, while maintaining close ties with tradition, he is over and above any time limit, demolishing the conventional view of art history as a sequence of tendencies of a temporal character. Lastly, rejecting the division of historical narration into a constant exchange of landmark movements, he suggests the idea of unity and composition. At first view, this can be performed on the individualized artistic product itself since various trends, methods and views are placed on top of each other: nostalgic renaissance perspective, motifs of medieval origin and creatures inspired by surrealism, veristic writing which goes far back to Dutch naturalism, distortion, romantic mood, symbolic narration and fantastic realism. This aesthetic entirety later comes to support the quest for the complete understanding of existence, the content of its artistic production.

Inevitably, Nikou abhors the limiting ΄rationality΄ and rejects the meaning of the term work of art. To the contrary, he aspires to create an artwork whose aesthetic values have already been established in the past. At this point, one would wonder what his position is on the horizon formed by progressing politico economic internationalization. How can he be part of a system of world order where the tendency to absorb local or national identity with the almost simultaneous production of works and ways of expression, their automatic diffusion and finally the formulation of an international painting vocabulary, may have helped extend the bounds of communication, but they unfortunately also often limited it to superficial approaches in terms of quality? To the contrary, the emotional and social content of Nikou΄s works, rich in references to their natural and cultural frame of production, managed to convey those experiences and feelings that led to their creation. Thus, alienation of the work of art from its creator is avoided, a problem which acclaimed art theorists and critics have already diagnosed as the most basic negative consequence of globalization and finally, the critic is protected by a “bureaucratic” type of approach, as Harold Rosenberg rightly put it.

The human form, almost always present, even when it is completely absent or if it is implied (Lost City, Unfinished Game),constitutes the basic point of reference and consequently, the main structural principle of inner unity which permeates his world as a whole. Thus, man as a social, political and therefore historical being, her/his relationship with her/himself, the manner in which (s)he deals with the opposite sex, her/his questions concerning the unknown and the invisible, which constantly proves to be all the more real and assertive than the objective world surrounding us, and nature determine the axes around which Nikou΄s speculations revolve. These coincide with units which, according to the titles given to them by the artist himself, are structured as follows: The World of Angels, Transfigurations, Biblical Cycle, Paganistic- Allegorical Cycle, Medieval-Romantic Cycle, Mythology and Historical Cycle.

In his work titled Evolution (1998), the human chain, developing horizontally, follows its evolutionary course which moves in the direction from right to left according to eastern philosophy. Though a process of birth and progress, the amorphous gradually acquires a shape in order to turn into a complete individualized person. The color scale, in harmony with the event of evolution, that is movement and change, starts with dark red due to its mixture with black and is gradually intensified since, with the passing of time, the material expands in order to end up having a redder shape that emits light. In a narrative mood, the most evolved figure, surprised, turns its head and looks back at its primitive past in wonder.

The birth of mankind, depicted in a shape reminiscent of a DNA spiral and by presenting a rationalistic view of the issue, will unexpectedly find itself before another creation of the world. The expelled portrays the archetypal couple, Adam and Eve, the moment they leave heavenly paradise. Here is a clear implication of another version of the appearance of man, the Genesis in the Old Testament and its dramatic course. The coexistence of these two different versions of birth and creation indicates the ideological stance of the artist himself. Once again, he implies a world of scientific conquests which, however, is still tormented by the fragmentation and division of knowledge. Remnants of the extreme specialization of the “advanced civilization” which makes the quest for a unified theory of creation endless. Are these works a counterpoint of the positive start of a dialogue? Perhaps they signify that point at which the meeting between the man of the past and the man of the present is made possible. On the one hand is the existentialist who discovers that man does not hold the highest position in the universe. Along with the expulsion comes the tragic awareness that man has ceased to be the center of divine interest. In the absurdity and chaos of the dull, day-to-day life of humans and the fear of alienation, the individual sees itself as a momentary phenomenon among so many others. It trembles before the mystic forces of creation and now being deprived of the gift of spiritual power, the individual lacks the strength to tame them, and as a result is confronted once more with the dragons, monsters and terrible prophecies of the Revelation (Knights of the Revelation, The Knight and the Dragon, The City΄s Spirits, The Garden of Evil, Lilith, Divine Comedy: Hell, The Angel of Temptation). The individual’s disharmony with the universe and with him/herself incorporates the idea of hell which is already here. Now the world is subjected to a split, to the duality of the intellectual subject and the analytical object. Soon however, representatives of a wide spectrum of scientists, in a ambitious attempt to demonstrate the nonmaterialistic aspect of the world, will come up against another weakness. The inability to answer a fundamental question, the one and only why. Inevitably, the understanding of the whole phenomenon of life and the miracle of creation will end up being a utopian quest. At this point, the only solution is to reconcile the two different visual approaches. This is precisely what the various interpretations of the creation and evolution of man describe: the gradual coming together of the intuitive and scientific man until the final surfacing of a collective spirit.

Similarly, other works such as the Final Encounter or Unfinished Game, shaping a series of continual binaries (historical, political, ideological) of human civilization, recall, now on a metaphysical level, the everlasting dilemma between good and evil. A situation which befalls those punished for committing the original sin, deprived of the pleasure of the fruit from the tree of life, the knowledge of absolute reality.

In the most resourceful way, the artist will bridge the gap giving a positive version of this incident with a poetic composition combining the old and new world as it is presented in his work titled God΄s Workers. In a peculiar and alien worksite, inspired constructivists build the future universe. The uniform background, in the blinding red color of cadmium, is interrupted by the radiance of the celestial bodies and stardust that the workers carry to the microscopic baskets of the huge air balloons. In a portrayal of the impossible, the flying mediums looking as if they were taken out of the set of a space movie, transport the bright, small and recurring explosions of creation. Their material composition in an exhaustive recording is presented with the accuracy that only a photographic lens or giant screen of dream making can offer. All individual elements, the instruments, scaffolding and particularly the air balloons, made of material with a smooth and shiny texture, not showing the slightest trace of a touch, not even that of the paintbrush, all appear to be brand new, as if they have just been made, as if it were the first day of creation. The use of veristic writing for the portrayal of an unreal atmosphere, the endless levitation of the flying mediums in a continual defiance of gravity and the strange feeling caused by the absence of sound, all contribute to the creation of a magical atmosphere. The main structural, literally and metaphorically speaking, element of the composition is the ladder which acts as a tool of man΄s evolution, ascent and progress.

The love and respect shown by the male creator to the female creature is shown in his presentation of the woman at the top of the chain of evolution, taking as back, through association, to the process of delivering and giving birth to mankind. In the World of Women, the artist΄s curiosity is rivalled by the profuse admiration, combined with awe, that he feels for the opposite sex. Feelings which lead him to the exploration of his mysterious world (Angels Unit, The Cave with the Gems, Nympaion Andron, The Spirit of the Rocks, The Spirit of the Emerald, Blue Cave, The Cave with the Pearls). Based on a Freudian approach concerning the male subconscious and in combination with an assessment of Nikou΄s personal experiences, the nature of the male world itself, equally mysterious and unforeseen, is exposed. Their secret subjugation to the female amazon, who proves to be the mightily dominator of the universe and orchestrator of the space surrounding the opposite sex, is revealed. Like a teenager, the artist imagines the woman to be sensual and desirable. Her body, always lusty, remains untouched by the wear of time. In a critical tone, he envisions the woman who is transformed and takes on a series of fatal roles: Salome or Babylon as the personification of raw lechery and ΄immortal Hysteria΄, the woman – temptress or Lilith as the deity of undying lust and condemned beauty, the woman – demon or sly spirit as the expression of mental debauchery (The Angel of Lust). Thus, almost all angelic creatures, other than the stereotypical archangelic figures, have the form of a sensual, enticing existence that aims at mental excitation.

In the mysterious Eclipse of the Moon, the woman – favorite model of female nature for the artist – who strangely radiates, is projected in a twin portrayal around an imaginary reflective axis in a fantastic division for the impossible, according to the properties of symmetry. In reality, this is not a reflection, but the projection of an image taken from an imaginary rotating point of observation. The philosophical extensions suggested by the composition are particularly interesting. Nikou raises issues concerning the meaning of space, which in the past occupied thinkers such as Kant, sparking e series of questions with metaphysical extensions and scientific applications. Both the real and artistic object cannot be conceived unless it is placed in space, whether it is portrayed artistically or overlooked (Ulysses, The Dorians, Athena and the Hellenes), therefore remaining, once again, the real space of canvas surface. Inevitably, space is subjected to the real by the structure of our thought.

The unfathomable woman – full moon, seated on the waterlilies in the emerald lake in the night that is brightened, not by the moon, but by the female creature, ambiguous and unrealistic, covered in a veil of dark charm. The mystic atmosphere which is created takes us back to the romantic sensitivity expressed by Carlyle΄s words concerning the beautiful Charlotte Corday, Marat΄s lover, while he wondered: What, What if she had emerged from her secluded stillness, suddenly like a star; Cruel-lovely, with half-angelic, half-daemonic splendor; To gleam for a moment, and in a moment to be extinguished; To be held in memory, so bright complete was she, thought long centuries!

The unit with the Transfigurations is impressive with its expressive capacity and exceptional sense of color. The color waterfalls that pulsate with the fantastic rhythm of various shades are the archetypical portrayal of the mystic world beneath the surface of the earth. The transformations from white-yellow to orange, and then to coral-purple (The Cave with the Gems), the plurality of the shades of blue which change till they acquire the deep green of the emerald (The Blue Cave, Nymphaion Andron) are so subtle that even the photographic lens is incapable of capturing them. The strokes flow dynamically, their main element of shape being the curve which radiates feminine energy, while every straight line which is identified with male supremacy is desecrated. Dominating in this space is the woman. At times she nonchalantly takes pleasure in her kingdom, and at other times, following constant change, she becomes one with it (The Spirit of the rocks). Always ambiguous, the conception of the male creature is identified with the original core of man, and in combination with the existence of water, takes us back to the origin of life, at the same time revealing the place of death. Thus, contradictory meanings are balanced, complementing each other. The cave, equated with fertility, sexual intercourse and gestation, becomes the poetic image of the womb. At the same time, it is the underworld and hell from which the ascension will occur since there is always a bright opening ideal for escape at its highest point. Also, the lustful women laying down, adorned with precious gemstones, recall another symbol: the fairytale of the cave with the inconceivable treasures which, in their metaphysical rendering take the form of the gems of wisdom, well-hidden and awaiting the hero who after trials and tribulations will discover them and gain knowledge.

Far from the idyllic atmosphere of the previous unit, in the work titled The Garden of Evil, the idea of death takes on leading role. Everything here alludes to hell and destruction. The shadow of disaster is formed with dead souls and human corpses. An endless pile of figures swamps the lower part of the horizon. Placed en masse, following the traditional method of the Italian trecento, they have lost their individuality, a meaning that is equated with that of the innermost essence of existence, the soul and spirit, and incessantly feed the giant death. Nikou΄s ingenuity in such compositions can be paralleled with that of Flemish creators such as the painter of Hours of Turin (possibly Hubert van Eyck) who painted the Second Coming of Christ. Although the painting΄s setting suggests an external space, the composition recalls a situation similar to that of the underworld, as it is presented in religious compositions of early Flemish painting. Also, the floating creatures echo a different version of the zodiac, which the painter has also depicted in the past (Allegory of the Zodiac: 1984), commenting on the fact that this theme was equated with witchcraft during the medieval times. The artist, starting from a realistic combination of hyper-rational monsters and motifs inspired by medieval fantastic art and the symbolic painting of the 19th century, has created a personal version of fantastic realism. However, the creation of hybrid demonic and paradoxical figures that allude to hell seems to go very far back, since it is interwoven with age- old and lasting concerns of mankind. However, other than his studies and the influence that was undoubtedly exerted on him by western art, in the narrative details, one recognizes recollections of the tradition of Orthodox ecclesiastical icon-paintings as it has survived in both monumental paintings and in portable icons. The horned creature that resembles a bull, painted on the top left corner of the composition, parodies the archangel, carrier of the souls of the dead in their last hour bearing the scale of justice. The creature has human hands, in one of which he holds the scale, and according to folk tradition, he weighs the good and evil deeds of the dead and escorts them to the next world. In the other hand, he holds a naked female figure. The souls of the dead in religious painting are depicted in the same way, while the zodiacs, with their bizarre appearance in a state of levitation, allude to demonic elements that claim the soul of the dead, signifying the triumph of ΄Evil΄. Also, the burning up of hell, which is enhanced by the acute expressions of the figures on the first level, depicted with photographic clarity, alludes to a long pictographic custom established both in the northern European tradition and in Orthodox ecclesiastic art. Here, according to the expert Otto Pacht΄s accurate observation, the mass, suffocating crowding of the people brings to mind nightmarish labyrinths, while the monsters – zodiac signs, floating in a semicircle above the people, literally depict the meaning of the expression ‘embrace of death’. All these elements succeed in arousing the feeling of great chaos, Chaos Magnum, which is completely consistent with the shadow of death, the Umbra Mortis, which could basically also be the other title of the work.

In this composition, Nikou gives a different version of the macabre. Here is where the fear of darkness dominates; it is the kingdom of all those demons that avoid the light of day. Even the horizon, gloomy and ominous, intensifies the dead-end semicircle in whose boundaries it develops, managing to capture the fear that is aroused in us by these dark monsters. The only feature of these monsters that can be discerned is the yellow glow of their eyes, exactly like the sky which they fly. Fortunately, there is still a way out. The unbearable feeling of hopelessness is lifted by the appearance of the white-faced, austere woman. Unstirred by the deafening cry f hell and uninvolved in the drama taking place before her, she stands away from the world of destruction, her face embodying the anticipation and hope of all those who choose to resist the leveling fear of death.

The work titled the Master is borne from the romantic unit and has the same spiritual-metaphysical atmosphere as earlier works. Here, the symbolic arrangement of the composition is in complete harmony with its content. The dematerialization of the figure alludes to the religious work titled I am the Light, essentially equating the protagonist of the two compositions.

The figure idea – idea of the teacher practically implied under the intangible cloak, becomes the main vertical axis of the narration. Placed on the point of the golden mean, which acts as the ladder of spiritual evolution, it is at the same time a model and path joining the earthly and heavenly horizon. His garment, forming transparent folds, takes us back to the pillars of the miracle of ancient Greek civilization. A clear reference to the unit of Greek philosophy and the codified knowledge of the hermetic philosophers, who follow a continuum will end up at the last great teaching of Christ. This, as a carrier of a message that is comprehensible to all, and with a masterly formed structure, since it foresees the different levels of initiating spiritual beings, leads to an absolute state of existence. It leads to the conquest of a Truth so moving that it shakes the roots of the twin trees, creating a dramatic contrast with the only stable column, that which is composed of the image of the teacher. The old world existing before Christ makes a new start with the end of the teachers’ s earthly appearance. From that moment, the cosmic clock started to tick, a fact that has been universally accepted with the Anno Domini dating that has since then prevailed. Therefore, the significance of the tree here is powerful on many levels. As a cosmogonic element, it was identified with the tree of life, and as an instrument of vice, it constituted an indirect expression of the sprouting demonic movement that caused the fall of mankind. At the same time, and in a constant exchange of roles, it will be established as the pictographic motif of the genealogical tree of the Virgin Mary and Christ, alluding once again to the redemption. Finally, the tree also acts as the most beloved symbol of the ritualistic communication between man and nature for another great Greek painter, Maleas, Ianni Nikou’ s favorite artist.

With an eschatological mood, the painter often returns to the theme of the angels. As a special kind of creature, they stand above the world of people and, being superior to this world, they are in contact with the Supreme Being whose messages they convey each time. In the composition the Angel and the Dragon, the former in the dress of an ancient Greek warrior, befitting both his origin and the kind he represents, overthrows the infernal powers. The dream and hope of Man in his final Restoration. The verism expressed in the artistic language, having the cinematographic tendency to impress, gives substance and body to the thick color imitating the blood of the exterminated beast. The composition, particularly loved in ecclesiastical decoration in the past and present, transcends time and becomes stereotypical with endless applications in popular conscience and creation. The angelic forces painted on the side doors of the sanctuary act as deterrents distancing the impure spirits such as those imagined by the artist in the previous composition or in the Garden of Evil from the space. The artistic narration symbolizing the transcendental triumph against evil functions as a way for the weak to vent their emotions in a spiritual battle, illustrating the transcendence of the materiality of the objective world.

Finally, in the composition titled Babylon and the Beast of the Revelation (2003), the artist projects terrifying figures on the screen of his painting though the lens of a video camera and with a fragmentary focus – a technique which he knows well from his studies in filmmaking and photography. The figures are so horrendous and large that it is impossible to fit them in the boundaries of the canvas. The uncertainty that arises from the incompleteness, as well as the confusion and darkness created by its fragmentary content, more effectively stimulate the imagination, which in turn magnifies the element of horror and the fantastic, generating that passion which is sought by the creator, and which would not have been achieved with a conventionally arranged image. The intensity is enhanced through the game of presenting a different perspective of each individual element.

The depiction of the prostitute-city, identified with a phenomenally flourishing and deep-down morbid civilization, unexpectedly acquires a timely character. The initial world was painted in 1983. A year before 1984, a year in which the world, converging the prophetic words of the Revelation, foresaw the end of the world. Although this did not take place, that which did happen was that this specific date was included in our vocabulary and it led to the proverbial expression ‘as in 1984’ used whenever there is a violation of human rights, as the author of the homonymous novel (1948) George Orwell had prophesized.

The pictographic symbols play a decisive role. Functioning on the basis of the law concerning the analogy between aesthetic form and fantasy, they expand, without any limits, the perception of the recipient, and driving it beyond the boundaries of experience, they create a passing from the rational to the hyperrational. Both the golden chalice and the cloak correspond to the underhand imitations of objects that are intended to be used: the purple cloak is the garment worn by spiritual kings, the chalice is the holy vessel used in religious rituals. The city of detestable deeds and decline depicts that which is false and non-existent in that civilization. Based on the common use of symbols, both in the arts of space (painting) and in the arts of time (poetry), this image shapes the hopelessness of a Wasteland, overlooked by the eyes of God (T. S. Eliot, What the thunder said).

The element of narration in Nikou’s culminates in his historical representations. His trilogy of the Fall of Constantinople, the Last Hour of Constantine Paleologos is a fragmented unit composed of three paintings painted in the period between 2001-2003. One of the most significant events in the history of Byzantine civilization is depicted here, the consequences of which were of crucial importance, not only to the shaping of new Hellenism, but also to Balkan and European history. The monumental dimensions of the paintings [Paleologos at the battlements on the dawn of 29 May 1453 (145X200 cm), in the center, The Last Hour of Constantine Paleologos (415X200 cm), and Constantine Paleologos-Gloria (200X145 cm)] are proportionate to the historical magnitude of the events. The successful outcome of the final campaign of Mehmet II and his army against the reigning city simultaneously marked the end of a whole era. The Sultan, having conquered a capital of international radiance, a city that is of great strategic and political importance, manage to turn the once Asian horde into an organized empire that was incorporated de facto into the system of the other European countries. 

The anecdotal approach to the theme in a continuous, yet at the same time separate development to the individual occurrences, combined with anxiety and tension, desire and hope, constitute the structural elements of the narration. The myth is romantically interwoven with the protagonist who devotes himself body and soul to a cause that is above him. The fear of being deprived of a precious possession, that of the freedom and historical and political existence of his world is the motive for a battle to the end, a battle that will make him a hero and a symbol.

In the first painting, the three soldiers, with their backs turned to us, introduce us to artistic reality. In effect, we as viewers placed at the same height as them and having the same visual angle, become their comrades. We see what they see, and since we are part of the image that manages to extend beyond the canvas, we participate in a common situation of waiting and preparing for that which will follow, both as an image and a narration.

The artistic narration reaches its peak in the middle painting. The scene is powerful, wild and violent, as a confrontation at a time of war requires. Precisely the elevation, which culminates at the right moment so that it can offer the recipient utter pleasure, compels Roland Barthes (The Pleasure of the Text, 1973) to define it with erotic terms that clearly imply the ecstasy and pleasure experienced by the male body at another climatic moment. Truly, the most vivid emotions are being depicted here. One can hear the clash of the swords, the tramping of the horses, one can feel the pain of the injured, the sorrow of the comrades who sense an impending loss or who have already lost beloved friends. Faces distorted by the endeavors and the intensity of the events.

The culmination of instincts in the third painting is replaced with an emotional intensity. The postponement of the aspired goal gives birth to hope and enhances desire. The enemies accomplish the impossible, the unheard of: “Constantinople has fallen”. However, the final outcome has not yet occurred. The anticipation is rekindled and maintained through folk myths which reserve a different fate and prominent position for the protagonist. Being inspired by the legend of the marble king who did not die but stayed trapped, till today, in that particular period in time, the artist depicts him as he was before, alive and colorful. To the contrary, his comrades are depicted in grisaille in the depth of the horizon, figures that are not from this world transcending the boundaries of time and becoming eternal fighters.

Nikou’s depiction of historical themes presents a rare case for art today. Personally, I would like to avoid pointing out features that have to do with what immediately recognizable and obvious, escaping the possibility of offering a trite repetition of his technique and skill, I will leave the pleasure to the viewer. This choice of the artist raises other questions. One such question is how are these works, drawn from national history and tradition, incorporated in contemporary production when the meaning of contemporary is often equated with the feeling that the future is already here? How are they theoretically substantiated when the need for something more contemporary than the contemporary led to the pathology of the hyper-contemporary? How do they coexist with the works of mass art, the main characteristic of which has shown to be their timely nature and ability to adapt themselves to changes in the economy and of our lives in general? This type of art, due to each potential to satisfy the culture of the wider public, floods every form and type of communication giving rise to a rather intense dialogue. A portion of critics who welcome mass art place it next to fine art, attributing to the latter the function of a treasury of values that are bound by time. However, by reversing this argument, one could give an equally aphoristic answer. Advertising, television and photographic descriptions are all flooded with images and narrations that are more or less defined, or in contrast, vulgar and commonplace. Images incorporated in guiding practices which aim to convince, deceive, mislead, charm, and above all, to become symbols of our thriving consumerist society. Inevitably, the artist, living in the same environment, reacts to the shallow rhetoric of the mass media and the pseudo-realistic image of our everyday contact with his mythical, historical and eschatological narrations. He, in turn, juxtaposes his myths with the fetishist phenomena of the myths of today. However, since I consider the attack-defense scheme to be weak and degrading due to its bipolar quality, I am confident that in human civilization, everything real has its place as long as it adjusts to the role that it is called on to play in a society of constant political, economic and social change. In this case, as it has already been stated, the new role of fine art requires that it become one of the powerful forms of communication in an extended framework which also includes mass art. Nikou’s historical themes, other than imposing paintings, are pleasant way for all, children and young people in particular, to occupy themselves with history. For this reason, his works leave the traditional pedestal behind and become the pictographic subtitles of the historical novels and school textbooks. The historical scenes are reproduced by specialized magazines, while the eschatological compositions, leaving sufficient space for reference to contemporary events, try to give a different interpretation of the extreme phenomena and political developments.

Simultaneously, both the expressive means and the artist’ s faith in representation profess his deep humanism. Consequently, the choice of this specific artistic expression is not only linked with a code of communication, but also directly with the creator’s code of individual morality, revealing the political vision which he himself has in store for his fellowmen and their future. On the other hand, and despite the extreme skill which is displayed in his formal-plastic language, in no case does he do away with the different levels of probing into the content, since it is the meaning that always occupies him.

But what is really behind the image? Exactly between that and the surface-vehicle? If the painter is true to his aspirations and not just a charming juggler of painting means, then, beyond doubt, he has another universe in store for us. An inner world, based on the magical game of geometry and narration, abstraction and portrayal. The other or one more presentation. I am not speaking of the visible structure of his images, but of the structure that is revealed through their electronic analysis-deciphering, which in turn brings forth another artistic scheme. Vertical and horizontal axes across the golden mean on the extreme co-ordinates of the canvas intersect and initially create a grid with four-sided shapes of various sizes. The arrangement of each element of the composition is then based on the distinction of the narrative units. Each of these, organized to its slightest detail, following the traces of the Pythagorean universe, is incorporated in perfect geometrical shapes, justifying the unexpected balance which characterizes the many-faced compositions. Nikou’s mastery is evident both in the drawing and on the level of composition. The concentration or spreading out of the figures, the intensity of the action and its curve create triangles, whose peaks always extend upwards, in harmony with the optimistic conviction of the creator. At times, when the action is concentrated in the central axis, it is incorporated in a circle, and when it spreads out to other points of the canvas, independent triangles are formed, always placed symmetrically. The vertical lines are indicative of stability and power, the diagonal lines of movement, the tendency to escape or rise, while the openings on the horizons give the work breathing space and lighten the dramatically charged and many-faced compositions when necessary. In all cases, the composition acquires harmony, symmetry, stability, clarity, unity and rhythm. Consequently, Nikou, exploiting the virtues of geometry to the extreme, reveals that everything is bases on a mathematical equation, of which only the X Component changes each time, that is, the sought-for artistic solution – challenge in each new work. Combined with the above, it becomes clear that by rejecting everything that is coincidental, he always has complete control over the formal process.

Consequently, on an abstract level of mental structure that is nevertheless substantiated, the artist’s approach, based on accurate calculations, alludes to the fundamental principles of the aesthetics of Symbolism which were promoted and handled in the best manner by the aesthetics of Abstraction. By juxtaposing the grid and structural form of Nikou’s work with certain compositions by Mondrian (Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue: 1921) he unexpectedly presents a common conviction. The reconstruction of the world that will come when the conflict between the opposing forces of good and evil comes to an end, a conflict which is diffuse in Nikou’s painting and ideology as a whole, as well as in the well-known painting ΄models΄ of Mondrian who added the abstractive tendency to neo-plasticism. And if the latter envisions an environment where certain realities will be experienced through the mutual relationship between destruction and construction, then our artist seeks for the one reality and illustrates the final outcome of the extreme actions. Together, they find themselves on common ground with Malarme, representative of symbolist literature, in their attempt to transfer reality to a game of association. According to Mondrian, everything is expressed in relation to something else and therefore, he sees this relation at the main element. This meaning of association very naturally extends to the means of expression: color cannot exist, except through other colors, size through other sizes and position through other positions. At this point I am reminded of Nikou’s confession when telling me about his own manner of working: No color, no stroke of the brush is accidental. All elements must cooperate with one another. They must be associated to one another so that the depiction can be balanced and not repulsive to the eye. On the contrary, it must attract the viewer, make the viewer run through the painting, study the combinations and the result, the whole. That is, the viewer must stop at each expression of sorrow, joy, anxiety, at each situation of peacefulness, movement, immobility, rising, falling, turmoil, destruction, and at each meaning, whether it be beauty, deformity, shapelessness, schematization, hope, battle or triumph. Additionally, the firm obsession of both artists with the dual viewing of the world and reality in order to reveal the pre-existent truth offers the common metaphysical basis for the current conversation. Nikou, respecting the law of analogy according to which symbols function, finds himself in common fight with his predecessor. Both look forward to creating an ideal environment -word- reality, where the absence of chance and the specific allows it to be identified with the global. Lastly, by exploiting the role of associations, he alludes to dramatic celestial-subterranean, whole-part, idea-form, abstraction-representation, material-metaphysical, wordly-transcedental, historical time-timelessness or prehistoric time, and lastly, objective-subjective, inner-outer, relative-absolute. Thus, I. Nikou, with a type of realism that tends to become transcendental, manages to give his personal interpretation to lasting crises. In his search for answers to similar questions he stumbles across the same questions that other people, different from him, expressed in their own way. However, bold the association of such apparently unrelated artistic proposals, such as those by Mondrian and I. Nikou, may seem, it is however based on the common issues, common ideology and metaphysical vision of opposites. It proves that as multifarious as the expression of creative language may be when concealing questions of essence, a common bases always surfaces and is used in such a way that the aesthetic result in each case can be distinguished from a trite execution or automatic reproduction.

As we are nearing the end of our tour in the world of Iannis Nikou, we must mention, as separate characteristics of his artistic creation, the successful blending and juxtaposition of the shades, the quality of which heightened from the fineness of the aquarelle to his impasto of richly incarnated colors. The paintbrush becomes an extension of the thought and imagination of the artist. As I watched him work, I noticed how sure he was about the choice of each shade. He loves the shades of blue that in an endless stimulating transformation create the vast skies, a reminder of the creator’s everlasting mood to travel to the heavens. These are the kind of journeys on which every spiritual nature can go without any mean; all that is necessary is the departure of their material body weight. Journeys through memory and history. This is where the ancient Greek warriors (Odysseus and Alexander the Great at the Battle of Granicus, Athena and the Hellenes, the Dorians) will meet other protagonists who do not only fight war battles, but mainly engage in spiritual battles. They all become heroes who transcend material bounds, defeat death and finally go there where the individual subconscious meets the collective in a trip that transports them to a hierarchically ordered infinity.

Another representative element of his artwork is the cadmium red, almost magical, that becomes a source of light on its own, like the whitish and surreal neon yellow used for the bodies. As for the pencil and its various degrees of shading on white paper, it depicts compositions, whose perfection in terms of technique turns them into independent works of art.

Through his compositions, Nikou brings back two fundamental issues of art, the imagination and the viewer. The viewer becomes a participant in the imagination that is not simply identified with the artist’s creative ability, but surpasses it, since the first is so instinctive that it pre-exists. In a universal unity of opinions, the imagination is used to give shape to that which exists beyond time, true and unchangeable (William Blake), and therefore manages to ensure the eternal (Wordsworth). The imagination, in turn, becomes visible through the symbol where one always discovers a concealment, but also a revelation: the shaping and revelation of the infinite. On the other hand, the exceptional handling of form, the outer shape -one of Nikou’s most impressive features- that reaches its highest possible point, perfection, aims at the ultimate goal, which is its transcendence.

As an observer of the whole, the viewer of the composition is always the artist’s prime concern. As we have seen, transferred by him into the painting, the observer sometimes assumes the role of the soldiers’ comrade in scenes of battle, and at other times, gets startled by the sudden projection of the enlarged beast that tends to escape the boundaries of the canvas. However, in each case, the main intention is to win back, through established aesthetic values, not the novelist’s Lost time, but the viewer’s lost aesthetic pleasure. The aesthetic enjoyment gained by the eye each time it stops to observe the virtues of the composition and its details, the bright glow of color, the game of illusory verism, the rhythmic distribution of forms and shapes. Thus, through Nikou’s conscious reaction to current anti-intellectual trends that lead to the willful elimination of the art of the past, his artistic creation proves to be the alluring aspect which sparks the viewers appreciation for the creations of earlier periods in time. The truth and timelessness of his questions allow the recipient, through personal correlations and combinations, to create her/his own works of art, or to call upon other creations that are already included in the universal anthology of civilization. Besides, it is not a coincidence that Nikou’s paintings blend in more naturally in public spaces where the wider acceptance of the particular artistic expression is a prerequisite.

My frequent, till now, reference to thinkers, artists and creators of movements that, in terms of time, are of the past is not coincidental. Nor is it exclusively related to the style of his works. It does however include the manner in which the artist moves on a now practical level, that of his day-to-day life. Our painter belongs to that rare category of creators that have the ability to occupy themselves exclusively with art and live from it, without having thee need to divide their time and taken on other occupations in order to earn a living. Far from the center of the big city, he seeks tranquility in a natural environment in which the ideal conditions of solitude allow him to hear the inner myths and envision his images. He lives in an environment without any technological distractions where all sounds that are reminiscent of the 20th century, except for that of the telephone, are absent. Moreover, an interesting fact is that his works are absorbed directly by a buying public without any intermediaries, while their distinct style attracts recipients who soon become collectors.

The characteristically large sizes of his paintings, the monumental character of his compositions in an attempt to experience absolute feeling, and the epic tone of his narration recall the Kantian perception on the meaning of wonderful. A meaning which German idealists placed higher than that of beauty, namely that which simply brings us to peacefully view a work of art. In contrast, in Nikou’s creations, both the perceived and imaginary size of the painting make it impossible to grasp the meaning at first sight or with only one look, thus stretching the limits of the imagination and generating the feeling of grandeur.

At this point I would like to clarify a misunderstanding that arose with regard to the definition of the style of his artistic language. These hybrid, strange figures and surreal animals which he often uses as signs of fear or the uncanny, as another version of the supernatural, often mislead critics to trap them in the narrow bounds of Surrealism, a movement that occurred at a specific time in the past and under certain historical conditions. In fact, I believe that these elements are the expression of his individual metaphysical concerns and his belief in the existence of a world divided into light and darkness, firmly rooted in the conception of hell and paradise. Inevitably, with his primitive, surreal symbols, he basically aims to reject the idea of the ΄real΄ or ΄natural΄ as being the only aspect of existence, in exactly the same manner as the medieval conception connected the religious view of life with the supernatural. In the words, his realistic painting style and paradoxical compositions function as the metaphysical extenscuion of the visible reality and are offered to the viewer so that (s)he can enjoy a more refined and enhanced form of experience. 

    In each of his compositions, I. Nikou expresses himself though narration and brings this form of expression to the foreground of contemporary artistic creation. Besides, is life itself not full of small narrations? It is not true that the whole history of the world incorporates a countless number of these presented each time through a wide variety of means, as many means as their material is capable of bearing the  articulated word, whether written or oral? Narration is an act of communication which takes us back once again, through association, to the concept of creation and, consequently, of art. With regard to each manner of expression, the artist applies a variety of types. Sometimes he is subject to the centripetal renaissance narration where he squeezes history into a specific time period during which the action is culminated. At other times he adopts the Wickhoff pattern (Franz Wickhoff, Die Wiener Genesis, 1912), where each painting is an integral narration that takes place at a specific point in time, and simultaneously, all the paintings together constitute the individual parts, the successive stages of a continuous and constantly developing narration, maintaining both the independence of the individual parts, and the unity of the composed work.

In the end, we discover that it is not the fragmentation that distinguishes Nikou’s artistic production, but the inner unity and qualitative relation that links his individual ΄narrations΄, their point of reference being man and his fate. The truth and validity of his intentions are confirmed with the presentation of a solidly structured central core to which we are led by each distinct unit. For example, one of his most recent works depicts the dragon-killing archangel. The figure derives its origins from Ra, the Egyptian god and destroyer of the dragon Apophis that stands as a threat to balance and life itself. As the enemy of the world and order, he attempts to bring the microcosm to a state of chaos, to the pre-evolutionary annihilation and indistinguishable state of existence that prevailed before the cosmogony, in other words, to a time before its evolution, once again catapulting us to the past, using this scene to take us back to one of his oldest works, the Evolution (1988). As a result, the division of his work as a whole into thematic categories incorporates, to a certain degree, the element of the conventional and is justified by the critic’s attempt to subdue this rare thematic variety. Additionally, such a practice is substantiated since, firstly, it attempts to facilitate the first level of reading the image-narration, and secondly, to serve the needs of museum economy. My reference here to museums is not coincidental. Contemporary artistic perception is based on the principle of how a museum operates, where everything has its place, without creating the need for an a priori criterion that will prescribe how a work of art should look or the existence of a predetermined narrative framework to which the artwork must adjust. To the contrary, as it was noticed in Nikou’s artistic creation, the art of the past is available for every use according to the will of the artist. The hours I. Nikou spent studying in the largest museums in Europe were determinative for the shaping of his work. Our painter, making use of his absolute freedom, a basic characteristic in contemporary expression, faces the museum, not filled with still art, but rife with vivid artistic choices and presents his own lively artistic proposal.

Through his technique, the creator revives the mastery of the past. However, he is not only master of the drawing, a title that was rightly bestowed on him, but he is also a master in the way he orchestrates his communication with the viewer, inducing the response of people belonging to different age groups and therefore people with different experiences. This explains how among his admirers, one will find, other than adults who see their metaphysical concerns being shaped, five-year-old collectors, fascinated by the amazing struggles between heroes and beasts. Lastly, communication proves to be the favorite game of the initiated teacher, who with his artistic virtues and the phantasmagoria of the image binds the recipient to a harmless game of ΄deceit΄ and magic, aiming to arouse the individual’s need for an inner exploration. For the present and the contemporary experience to his protean plunge into the cave-womb of his creation, he seeks his own answers as to who he is and where he is heading.

Nikou’s paintings, uniquely charged with a wealth of symbols that seek their interpretation, require a deeper investigation. At the same time, his paintings themselves raise questions that are essential in the film of criticism, theory and art history since they manage to lift the qualitative dilemma between the paintings and an artistically abstractive or minimalist approach to meanings.

For all these and other reasons, which could not be broached with the lucidity the object itself demands due to the length and type of his written work, I believe that the painter Yannis Nikou holds a prominent position in the world of contemporary artistic production and according to what characterize as contemporary art, it would be scientific ineptitude to overlook it, since our main and ambition is to raise an overall awareness regarding our cultural products. On the other hand, the nature of his works calls for a viewing that requires the co-operation of humanitarian sciences (history-theory of art, social anthropology, folk art and folklore, the history of religions, philosophy and psychoanalysis), while a thorough analysis will not only explain their significance, but will discourage, I hope, rash critic, exclusively based on the morphological quality of his artistic language.

In conclusion, I believe that these works will endure the test of time, since they are not merely a passive reflection of events of a limited magnitude. In contrast, they deal with themes that are kept deep in the eternity of the historical as well as non-historical world, and being depicted as they are, with an artistic language that unites accepted traditions on a universal level, invite us on a magical journey deep in the bowels of the earth, and from there to the far heavens of the universe. While the painter tirelessly aspires to give shape to eternal issues, he constantly nourishes the artist-work-audience scheme, holding the act of communication that starts with the completion of his creation alive. For Hodin, the approach to the spiritual, the need of man to think on a metaphysical level, and the enigmatic, theological or mystic quality are always found in the roots of artistic creation and are the distinctive points of every true art . For Nikou, on the other hand, the search for the relationship between man and himself, nature and the metaphysical, the awareness of the existence of the unknown, and at the same time, his deeply critical attitude towards the state of the world, the world of order and whatever threatens it, the myth of the Lost Paradise and Perfect Man, the mystery hiding behind Women, Love  and Creation, are issues that promise a new, each time, reading and interpretation by different recipients, now and in the future, both on a collective and individual level, always based on the spiritual heritage of each of us. In the end, is that perhaps not the key feature of true creation?

                                                                                     Iliana Zarra

Professor of Art History,

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Iannis Nikou’s work is unique. By this statement, I mean that in contemporary art, when the so called “originality” and “improvisation” have displaced skill, study and the narrative element, Nikou is persisting in creating monumental paintings, both in dimension and in composition.

In Nikou’s paintings the spectator can read stories of epic character and vivid sensations. The painter is using a visual, rich of philosophical and psychological symbols code, appealing to our subconscious, so to make us participate in his own “world”.

All the above, speaking from the technical point of view, is achieved by the impeccable use of drawing with pencil and by, the material he prefers most, the oil color. The sources of Nikou’s inexhaustible inspiration can be traced in literature, science fiction, opera, history, as well as in cinema or in comics. His male figures are saints or monsters; his female characters, either beautiful or ugly, are always Sirens, Harpies or Sphinxes, erotic but at the same time menacing and forbidden. His heroes are coming from the past and from a spatial future; creatures of another world, together with knights in their quest for the Holy Grail, winged horses, demons and angels…

Iannis Nikou is definitely representing the present in Contemporary Art.

1. Pantelidis, Historian of Art – Journalist

“Gallery Guide”, 1998, Athens.

…Powerful, dynamic, fully worthy of a master painter’s touch on canvas, Nikou’s ability in artistic design is absolutely stunning … In his pencil drawings, his graphic, infinitely vigorous and musical, implies the “presence” of many more colors than the obvious two, black and white. What is truly amazing, is that Nikou never does use the advantage of a first rough draft. On the contrary, his pencil drawings emerge as self – existent from the very first moment.

This same, incomparable mastery of technical background is clearly apparent in his oil paintings on canvas as well; color is the dominant force in plotting the dynamic structure of each one of these syntheses. Moreover, his sense and choice of “color” is found in harmony with absolutely any kind of theme, whether this might be derived from the Greek Mythology, or by the “Apocalypse” of St. John.

And indeed, Ianni Nikou’s works are highly indicative of one of the most resourceful of imaginations. By means of a purely metaphysical code, which is his personal vehicle for artistic creation, the painter achieves to make an implicative allusion to the corporate structure of human beliefs, fears and fantasies that has survived along with Mankind, from ancient times up to the present day.

Owing to this ingeniously unique use of dynamic structure and color, Iannis Nikou, in each one of his masterpieces manages to entangle us into the plot of a fully performed drama, without us needing the assistance of any sort of narrative part.

And it is at this point, when it might be very well justified to say, that Iannis Nikou has so immensely sharpened his tools of metaphysical vision, that the quality of his work has reached its peak.

By Dora Heliopoulou – Rogan

Phd History of Art, Art – Critic

Art Critique on the occasion of Ianni Nikou’s personal exhibition “ARGO” Gallery (October 1998), Athens, Greece.

Iannis Nikou is a many-sided personality with a penetrating mind and a wind encyclopedic education. He graduated from the Higher School of Fine Arts in Athens and studied acting and stage direction in the Athens School of Theatre and Cinema. Concurrently he was also studying guitar and mosaic. In Genoa, Italy, where he lived for some years, he studied photography as well. Despite the numerous opportunities offered him for a successful career abroad, he was always attracted to Greece. In 1991, he settled permanently in an idyllic estate in Macedonia near the city of Drama, where, in a super-modern studio, he is wholeheartedly dedicated to painting.

It is not accidental that, as fervent patriot, the inspiring and inexhaustible source of Greek history proved the motive power behind the epic and prolific oeuvre of Iannis Nikou. In general, his paintings, mostly oil on canvas, usually of great dimensions, abound with historic references drawn from the broad spectrum of Greek civilization. Among his most remarkable and breathtaking creations, are the huge allegories that recapture vividly and convincingly some of the glorious moments of our history, such as “Alexander the Great in Gavgamila”, “Thermopylae” and the two great paintings, “The naval battle of Artemision” and “The Fall of Constantinople”, presented in this exhibition. These canvases instantly impress and captivate the viewer with the extraordinary artistry and mastery of their compositions. His work, rich in didactic content and expressed by a fine-drawn expressionism, appeals directly by its thematic wealth conceived through a profound personal vision.

The artist’s subject matters are expanding on various periods that he refers to as “cycles” of his work, such as Greek Mythology and Ancient History, Byzantine-Middle Ages, including Biblical sources, especially The Revelation of St. John, as well as the Allegoric-Paganistic Cycle and the Romantic Cycle.

The fury of World War II literally devastated Greece from end to end. Nevertheless, while the traces of the terrible catastrophe still lay littered all around us, we discern with admiration and surprise Greek art, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes, rally and recover in no time, entering a period of astounding flourish. New ideas, new forces, new initiatives, mark this post-war period, confirming the popular belief that Greece never really dies. The epic work of Iannis Nikou fully confirms this conviction.

I recall the well known English historian Arnold Toynbee once telling me that civilization constitutes a current, a movement and not a permanent condition. It is not a harbour, but rather a long journey. This flow, however, this movement, this journey, requires constant enrichment in order to survive. And its survival is mainly sustained by the bountiful contribution of art. This was also the point Melina Merkouri always made, by asserting that the heavy industry of a nation nowadays is not its factories, but its art and civilization. In this sense, the multiple and essential artistic input of Iannis Nikou to Greek civilization is remarkable and unique.

In general, it can be said that the entire dynamic and diversified expressive power of Iannis Nikou reveals almost like in a cinematic reel, a tragic and tormented humanity, violently chained to an inexorable destiny where everything is at stake in a relentless battle between death and survival. It is of interest to note that in his latest works, the artist expands this merciless human destiny so as to also include dramatic events of our times, such as the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. The inexhaustible imagination of the artist also serves as an enticement to a gentle initiation to an infernal world of mystery that hovers between Heaven and Hell.

Iannis Nikou is also a Master of Design. The impressive aesthetic success of his major canvases is due to the fact that all of them, as he himself reveals, are based upon a previously carefully executed design that secures the harmonic balance of the different entities into a well-appointed whole, revealing thus the artistic dexterity of a multi-dimensional and ingenious creator. The careful design of his creations also solves the difficulty of balancing the coexistence of a microcosm with a macrocosm in his multi-dimensional compositions.

It has been said that “it is certain that those who refer themselves to History will be heard and judged by History itself”. I am certain that History has already judged and recognized the imposing output of Iannis Nikou, who has proved himself a true Greek of our times. His artistic prowess is indissolubly tied, body and soul, to our history and civilization. As a consequence, the entity of his work is permeated by a refined spirit of Hellenism, that establishes him as the unquestionable artistic historian of our area, a real contemporary Thucydides. And just as this world-famous historian once declared, art requires a great deal of courage, physical, physiological, sentimental and above all an unshakable self-confidence. Iannis Nikou has already fully proven that he possesses abundant artistic power, not only for the present but for the future as well. For it is absolutely evident, that the innovative work of this epic artistic will easily survive time and memory.

Ian Vorres

President of the Vorres Museum (Athens, Greece)