Group portrait, 1989

An artist of modern everyday reality, Costas Malamos depicts in his works the life, history, passions, and environment of the Greek people. Without ever departing from representational painting and with colour as his main means of expression, he creates an art in which, often, the realistic style is not a mere record of the outer world, but ends in an effort to interpret it, as he gives an inner content to his work. Around 1965, in a unique combination of plein air painting and a realist style, he created his series of Athens neo-Classical buildings. The free painting, which is not restricted by the geometrical arrangement imposed by architecture, makes use of all the possibilities of light, while faithfulness in the rendering stresses the individual characteristics of each building, thus producing 'portrait' images. With the deathly silence which envelops them, they exude a metaphysical mood.