An artist with strong social and political concerns who produced historical works on the Occupation and Resistance.
35 works, portraits, landscapes, engravings and sketches by the painter Valias Semertzidis are presented in a specially designed space of the Foundation, on the occasion of the kind donation of the works by his wife, Rouli Semertzidis.
Valias Semertzidis (1911-1983), Greek painter and engraver, was born in Russia in 1911 and lived in Greece from 1922 until his death in 1983. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts, in the workshop of Kostis Parthenis, by whom he was influenced significantly, especially in the early years of his artistic career.
An artist with intense social and political concerns, he captured in his work the city of Athens during the Nazis’ occupation, the Resistance and the Guerrilla, constituting one of the most important direct historical testimonies of the time. His constant source of inspiration was the Greek rural, working and island life. He experimented with engraving, perfecting a new technique, which he called “etched painting”.
