Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985) was born in Athens with family roots in Constantinople on his father’s side and in Hydra on his mother’s side. In 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War, his family moved to Constantinople where he attended a private school. He continued his education in Paris as a boarder at high school from 1919 to 1927. After returning to Athens and completing his national service, he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in 1932. With Greece’s entry into the Second World War in 1941, he was enlisted and served on the Albanian front. In 1945, he began teaching in the School of Architecture in the National Technical University of Athens, becoming a professor there in 1969. As a painter, he held many individual and group exhibitions both in Greece and abroad and represented Greece at the Biennale in Venice in 1954. He also designed the sets and costumes for numerous theatrical productions. He was twice awarded the National Prize for Poetry.
