Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Gikas was born in Athens in 1906. His mother, a member of the prominent Gika family, originated from the island of Hydra, where a young Nikos spent a considerable amount of time in his youth. The insular landscape and colour schemes influenced his impressionable gaze and informed his future painting. Urged by his school to reconsider his academic path, Nikos’ parents sent him to study painting under Vassilis Magiasis in 1917 and Konstantinos Parthenis in 1921. After graduating from secondary school in 1922, Hatzikyriakos-Gikas enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens. However, he cut his time at university short, moving to Paris the following year. In the French capital, he frequented the Sorbonne, attending classes in French and Greek literature and aesthetics. In 1924, he transitioned to the Académie Ranson.
During this period, he participated in his first group exhibitions and enjoyed his first ever solo show in 1927 at the Galérie Percier in Paris. The following year, he took part in his first exhibition in his native Athens, alongside sculptor Michalis Tombros at the ‘Stratigopoulou’ gallery.
Hatzikyriakos-Gikas was inspired by 1930s European modernism such as cubism and constructivism and managed to appropriate these styles in his Hydra-inspired motifs and rich chromatic palettes, combining geometry with warm light and architectonic aesthetics.
In 1935, Hatzikyriakos-Gikas diversified his practice. He explored sculpture, textile work, illustration, engraving and writing at the same time. Together with Dimitris Pikionis, Socrates Karantinos and T. K. Papatsonis, he published the magazine’To Trito Mati. He also started designing theatre costumes for plays such as As You Like It by William Shakespeare (‘Chicken Theater’) and the play The Jealousy of le Barbouillé by Molière (‘New Drama School’ by S. Karantinos, 1938). The artist’s academic writing became more prolific and was published in numerous Greek journals and magazines. After the war, academic writing led the way to academic teaching and professorship. From 1945 to 1958, he taught at NTUA School of Architecture. He was elected honorary doctor of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1982; honorary member of the British Royal Academy of Arts in 1987; and honorary doctor of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens in 1991 .
In 1986, Hatzikyriakos-Gikas donated 46 of his works to the Athens National Art Gallery, and in 1991, he donated his three-floor house to the Benaki Museum for his property to become Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Art Gallery, operating as an annexe of the Benaki Museum.
His corpus has enjoyed numerous retrospectives, including: the British Council, Athens (1946); Whitechapel, London (1968); Athens National Art Gallery, Greece (1973); Trito Matigallery, Athens, Greece(1984); Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece (1987); Royal Academy of Arts, London (1988). The following retrospective exhibitions were organised after his death: Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (2006) and Andros Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece (2011).
Hatzikyriakos-Gikas passed away in 1994.
