Giorgos Vakalo

George Vakalo (; 1902 – 2 October 1991) was a 20th-century Greek visual artist, renowned for his contributions to scenography and painting.

Biography Born in Constantinople in 1902, his real surname was Vakalopoulos. Vakalo received his initial artistic training in Constantinople under Lysandros Prasinos, who taught him painting and miniature art. In 1922, he moved to Paris to study decorative arts at the École des Arts Decoratifs and at the Academies Grand Chaumière and Julian, completing his studies in 1928. Influenced by surrealism, he also studied scenography at the Theatre de l’Atelier under Charles Dullin and apprenticed with scenographer Ladislas Medgyes. In 1957, along with Panayiotis Tetsis, Frantzes Frantziskakis, and his wife Eleni, he established the Vakalo School, Greece's first school of decorative arts. He worked as a scenographer and costume designer for major Greek organizations like the Greek National Opera (for about 40 years), the National Theatre of Greece and the National Theatre of Northern Greece. Vakalo was a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece (EETE).

In 1953, the French government awarded him the Knight of the Legion of Honor. He continued to teach at the Vakalo School until 1978.

Artistic Style and Work Vakalo's painting style is characterized by a unique personal hyperrealism, where line and color play primary roles, often in soft tones, and a strong decorative inclination is evident. Despite his involvement with the group "Stathmi" in 1949, he maintained a distance from the neorealist movement within the group, staying true to the interwar abstract tendencies he had encountered during his apprenticeship in France.