N.A. in his atelier-studio, in 1994 (photo by D. Ganiatsas).
In the following piece, George and Nikolas, one alongside the other, wink at us from high above…
George Vakirtzis (1923-1988) had great respect for his teacher, Stefanos Almaliotis (1910-1987), and also felt a special admiration for the younger Nikolaos Andreakos (1932-1994), a fellow painter and student of the experienced Almaliotis. Members of the hellaffi Group met with Andreakos in the early 1990’s in the dark, damp semi basement atelier, at Ilissia, where he created his great work, painting Giant cinema posters during the 1960’s and 1970’s, up until the end of the 1980’s, for the cinemas ELLINIS, AELLO, KOTOPOULI, RODON and, mainly for the ATHINAION.
This generous and larger than life painter of the cinema poster ended up an ascetic philosopher in later life. he was steeped in bitterness and sadness when he confided in us but, following years of contemplation, was also in a forgiving mood. he shared with us that …when George Vakirtzis was putting together the necessary material for his book “Giant posters of Cinema” on the Athens School of poster painting, I lent him my entire archive at the time. The archive was never featured in Vakirtzis’ book and, what is even worse, was never returned to me… For months we were urging and pleading with Nikolaos to “acknowledge” some of his works. he kept replying – respectfully – that “they belonged to George”. Only after we reminded him of the fact that George had never painted for the specific cinemas those “fragments” had come from did he admit, in tears, that they were, indeed, his….
Chr. M.
During the first exhibition of the hellaffi Collection: 1. The Mayor of Athens honors N.A., 2. G. kouzounis and N. kessanlis with N.A. at a special round-table, 3. N.A. with the actor N. Xanthopoulos.
