Galanis, Demetrius-Emmanuel

Demetrios Galanis (Greek: Δημήτριος Γαλάνης, 17 May 1879, Athens – 20 March 1966, Paris) was an early twentieth-century Greek artist and friend of Picasso. In 1920, the year he completed his Seated Nude (private collection), he exhibited alongside such major figures of modern art as Matisse and Braque, while from 1921 on he also exhibited alongside Juan Gris, Dufy, Chagall, and Picasso. By the early 1920s Galanis was famous in France and preparing for shows in Brussels, London, and New York. In 1920–21 he frequently exhibited in Paris and in 1922 his first one-man exhibition received the enthusiastic critical response that established his reputation. Seated Nude was among the pictures exhibited, and in an introduction to the exhibition André Malraux described the artist's work as "having the power to stir emotions equivalent to that of Giotto." This show established Galanis's reputation as a painter and confirmed the favourable opinions already expressed on the quality of his work. Critics of his time paid much more attention to his figurative work than his landscapes, confirming the well-established view that Galanis's first and foremost concern was his love for the human form. Galanis...