Dimitris MYTARAS was born in Chalkida in 1934 and died in Athens in 2017.

He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1953 to 1957, under Yannis Moralis and Spyros Papaloukas. From 1961 to 1964, with a scholarship from the State Scholarship Service, he continued his studies in Paris, where he attended stage design at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and interior decoration at the Métiers d’Arts.

Mytaras became one of the most important Greek painters of the second half of the twentieth century. His work was centred mainly on the human figure and developed through a personal combination of naturalism, expressionism and symbolic intensity. From the 1960s onwards, his painting moved towards a more naturalistic approach, while after the mid-1970s, expressionistic elements became increasingly prominent.

During the period of the Greek military dictatorship, he created works that offered a critical visual commentary on contemporary Greek society, including the well-known series *Photographic Documents*. Later, his work returned to themes connected with myth, memory, the female figure, portraiture and the theatrical presence of the human body.

His paintings are characterised by strong draughtsmanship, expressive colour, psychological intensity and a powerful sense of composition. Through portraits, figures and symbolic scenes, Mytaras explored identity, desire, social tension and the deeper emotional dimensions of human presence.

In addition to painting, he worked extensively as a stage and costume designer, collaborating with major Greek theatres, including the National Theatre of Greece and the National Theatre of Northern Greece. From 1964 to 1972, he directed the Interior Decoration Workshop of the Athens Technological Institute, and in 1975 he was elected professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

Dimitris Mytaras exhibited widely in Greece and abroad and participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1972. In 1978, together with his wife Harikleia and with the support of the Municipality of Chalkida, he founded a painting school in his birthplace.

Works by Dimitris Mytaras are held in important public and private collections. He remains recognised as one of the leading figures of modern Greek art, admired for the expressive force, psychological depth and distinctive figurative language of his work.