(1914 - 2010)

Nassos Daphnis

Nassos Daphnis was born in the Greek village of Krokeai near Sparta. He would begin drawing and carving early in his childhood; leading to many beatings by the village schoolmaster.  In 1930 he arrived in New York City where he worked in his uncle’s flower shop. Less than supportive, his uncle exclaimed, "Whoever heard of an artist from Krokeai?". Subsequently, he would draw during odd hours until a chance meeting with another florist's assistant, Michael Lekakis, changed his life. Lekakis offered the use of his studio and a model a few days each week. Eventually, Daphnis would set up his own studio where much of his early paintings would be based on memories of Greece. While considered naïve in style, they were characterized by a strong feeling for color and form. 

In 1938, Daphnis would sell a painting to William Gratwick in NYC, subsequently joining him on his estate, the historic Linwood Gardens, crossbreeding tree peonies. Daphnis would often say that he had two real careers, painting and horticulture, and would look back fondly on his time spent surrounded by all the beauty of the estate which had inspired so much of his life and artistry. Yet in 1942 he would leave for the army, returning from World War II deeply affected by Europe's devastation. 
 
In a studio he shared with Theodoros Stamos, he began painting surreal landscapes, laying on images of ruin with a palette knife. In time, his work evolved into biomorphic shapes representing the natural world, leading to his observation that "nature works in order to create a form in an orderly fashion." His work would become a confluence of his experiences; an early life surrounded by beauty, time painting camouflage for the army, bearing witness to WW2, and particularly a 1950 trip to Greece where he experienced an intensity of light appearing to reduce all appearances to basic forms, leading Daphnis to create his iconic flat, abstract, geometric paintings.
 
Daphnis has created work that is environmental and presented site-specific installations across New York City offering viewers a mesmerizing and powerful experience. Daphnis exhibited with Leo Castelli Gallery for over thirty years.



Selected Collections

Akron Art Institute, Akron, Ohio Albany Mall, Albany, New York
Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Ann Arbor Art Museum, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Baltimore Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
Basil Goulandris Museum, Andros, Greece
Boca Raton Museum or Art, Boca Raton, Florida
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
Guggenhiem Museum, New York City
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC
Ian Vores Museum, Peonia, Athens, Greece
Munson-Willliams-Proctor Museum, Utica, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Pittsburgh Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Providence Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
Whitney Museum of Art, New York City

Selected Works