Nassos Daphnis

Places of work recorded in the authority are United States. Work by Nassos Daphnis is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Buffalo AKG Art Museum and Vanderbilt Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship.

• Name — Nassos Daphnis • Born — 23 July 1914 • Birthplace — Krokeai, Greece • Died — 23 November 2010 • Place of death — Provincetown, Massachusetts, U.S. • Known for — Painting, Sculpture, Tree Peonies • Movement — Geometric abstraction, Hard-edge painting

Daphnis was born in Krokeai in the Kingdom of Greece on July 23, 1914.

Daphnis served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945. During his service he was asked to put his skills as a painter to use and created camouflage for use on enormous military relief maps. It is speculated by some art critics that it was while painting camouflage that Daphnis developed the signature flatness later recognizable in his abstract geometric paintings.

While Daphnis is generally regarded as a self-taught artist, though he did pursue some formal training. Following his military service, Daphnis trained at the Art Students League of New York. From 1949-1951, Daphnis studied in Paris. From 1951 to 1952, he continued his studies at the Istituto Statale D'Arte in Firenze, Italy. In 1952 he returned again briefly to Paris for additional study.

• Illustration — Richard Taittinger Gallery at 154 Ludlow Street Manhattan • Illustration — Richard Taittinger Gallery For nearly forty years Daphnis was represented by the Leo Castelli Gallery. Castelli gave him 17 solo exhibitions in his gallery and regularly included his work in group exhibitions featuring artists such as Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg and Lee Bontecou. Castelli also regularly submitted Daphnis' works to exhibitions at a variety of galleries and institutions. For instance, from November 9-December 9, 1964, Daphnis' EPX 28-64 was included in "Art in Wood Today" as presented by the United States Plywood Corporation with the assistance of Dr. Richard McLanathan of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts at the company's new New York headquarters. Other artists in this exhibition included Robert Indiana, Louise Nevelson and Andy Warhol. Similarly, from May 16-June 10, 1967, Daphnis' work was exhibited in dialogue with Nicholas Krushenick's in "Paintings/Collages Krushenick/Daphnis" at the Franklin Siden Gallery in Detroit. In his later years, Daphnis also exhibited at the Eaton/Schoen Gallery in San Francisco and the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York. From May 6-July 4, 2008, Anita Shapolsky Gallery's "Masters of Abstraction" included work by Daphnis along with Seymour Boardman, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Aaron Siskind. In August 2015, Richard Taittinger Gallery announced its exclusive representation of the Estate of Nassos Daphnis. Daphnis received his first solo exhibition at the gallery, Pixel Fields, from September 17-October 24, 2015 and his diptych 4-A-78, 4-B-78, 1978 was included in the group exhibition, Ballet Mecanique from January 16-February 20, 2016. Reviewing Ballet Mecanique for Whitewall Magazine, Emory Loppicolo discussed with the gallery how Daphnis' work could be contemplated in dialogue with Mario Merz's work from the 1970s and 1980s: "Merz and Daphnis were both iconic masters of the 20th century and both had first-hand experience with wartime. Their contact with World War II affected their artistic practice and theoretical perspectives, since machines played a critical role. Meanwhile, the younger generation’s concern with process, format and the relationship to industrial mediums can act as a continuity to Merz and Daphnis’ achievements."

• Illustration — Nassos Daphnis 'City Walls' 26th and Madison Ave. 1969 • Illustration — Nassos Daphnis 'City Walls' at the Arlen Building, 43rd Street and Broadway • Illustration — Nassos Daphnis 'City Walls' 47th Street and Westside In 1969, Daphnis was commissioned by City Walls. Incorporated to do a wall painting at 26th Street and Madison Avenue in New York City In 1971, he was commissioned again to do a wall painting at West Side Highway and 47th Street in New York. From 1971 to 1980, City Walls, Inc. installed public murals in New York City. Neither of Daphnis' murals remains today.

Daphnis died on November 23, 2010 in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Daphnis' career as a breeder of tree peonies was as prolific as his career as an artist. He created approximately 500 tree peonies and 48 of them were named and registered with the American Tree Peony Society and further propagated. His interest in tree peonies began in 1938 when he met William H. Gratwick of Linwood Gardens, a prominent breeder of tree peonies. Daphnis eventually became partners with Gratwick in the business and art of hybridizing tree peonies, creating many beautiful cultivars and naming them after artists and figures in Greek mythology. In a 1984 interview Daphnis described the beginning of his relationship with the tree peony: "...In those days (1938), the trip from New York to Pavilion took at least 10 hours. I arrived late in the evening, so it wasn't until the next morning that I had a chance to walk around the grounds. Bill Gratwick and I were strolling down the long driveway when suddenly my breath was taken by the incredible color of rows of tree peonies in full bloom. I was familiar with all types of cultivated flowers from having worked for seven or eight years in my uncle's flower shop in New York. But in all that time, I had never seen blossoms like these. Fascinated by their beauty, I asked Bill Gratwick what they were. Tree peonies from Japan, he replied, and he began to tell me how he had gotten the plants. Some he had imported from Japan; some he had grown from seed. All were part of a collection of rare plants he was raising at the nursery he then maintained at the Pavilion estate....As a painter, my first impulse was to capture the beauty and elegance of these flowers by doing portraits of each variety. At that time, the Gratwicks were growing about 110 varieties of tree peonies, each of which had been selected for the beauty and perfection of its petal arrangement, color, shape, foliage and length of stem. I did paint a few of the varieties, some singly and others in arrangements. This continued for several years, as I came back each spring until 1942, when I was inducted into the Army..."