Biography
Born in Vólos in Greece in 1888, he studied at the Polytechnic Institute of Athens and attended evening drawing courses. In 1906 he moved to Munich where he attended the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. In this period he is interested in the art of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger, in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. He went to Milan in 1909, to Florence in 1910 and to Paris in 1911, where he participated in the Salon d’Automne of 1912 and 1913 and in the Salon des Indépendants of 1913 and 1914. He frequently attended the weekly meetings of Guillaume Apollinaire where he met Constantin Brancusi, André Derain, Max Jacob and others. With the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Italy in 1915 where he met Filippo de Pisis in 1916 and Carlo Carrà in 1917; together they form the group that will later be called the Metaphysical School. In 1918 he moved to Rome where the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia will organize his first solo show in the winter of 1918-1919. In this period he was among the members of the Valori Plastici group with which he exhibited at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin. From 1920 to 1924 it was divided between Rome and Florence. In 1921 the Milan art gallery set up a solo exhibition; while in 1924 he participated for the first time in the Venice Biennale. In 1925 he returned to Paris where he exhibited Léonce Rosemberg’s Effort Moderne at the Galerie. Also in Paris his works are exhibited at the Galerie Paul Guillaume in 1926 and 1927 and at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher in 1927. In 1928 the Arthur Tooth Gallery in London and the Valentine Gallery in New York set up his personal. In 1929 he designed the sets and costumes for Le Bal, a ballet produced by Sergei Diaghilev, and at the same time his book Hebdomeros was published. In the following years he elaborates drawings for ballet and opera and continues to exhibit in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. In 1945 the first part of the book Memorie della mia vita was published. He died in Rome, his city of residence for over thirty years, in 1978.