The painter, author and poet Nikos Houliaras passed away at the age of 75, with his funeral scheduled to take place at the First Cemetery of Athens at 4pm on Wednesday.
Houliaras, who was born in October of 1940 in Giannena and graduated from the Athens School of Fine Art, is considered one of Greece’s most important contemporary painters, known for his deeply personal and intense expressionist style.
Aside from paining, Houliaras wrote music – particularly in the mid-to-late 1960s – and was of the first artists to cover traditional songs from Epirus into contemporary folk, which he performed in Athens.
He began writing in the mid 1970s, with his latest book published in 2005. Many of Houliaras’ novels and short stories have been translated in French, Italian, English, Swedish and Germany. His novel “Lousias” was adapted in a television series that was broadcast by ERT in 1989.
In 1996 he was nominated for the European Excellence Award for Literature for his book “The home of my enemy”.
