The well-known painter and poet Christos Markidis was found dead inside his apartment in Exarchia.

The 72-year-old artist was found at his home on the afternoon of Monday, August 24. The initial indications point to suicide.

The competent authorities are investigating the case in order to fully clarify the circumstances of his death.

In his final post, made several hours before he was found dead, he referred to “the terrible trap of existence.” Specifically, prompted by the 1968 film Persona, Christos Markidis wrote:

“Birth is a trap. A completely enigmatic trap, because when one emerges from the body of one’s mother, the image creates an impression of liberation. Yet when the child emerges from the body of its mother, it enters the trap. The terrible trap of existence. – Nikos Karouzos.”

Who was Christos Markidis

He was born in Drama in 1954 and, from 1974 to 1979, studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts, focusing on painting, fresco painting, art history, theory of rhythm, and educational psychology. After completing his studies, he lived and worked for a period in Paris, while from 1985 to 1988 he was awarded a scholarship by the State Scholarship Foundation to undertake a specific artistic project in Greece.

Markidis’s exhibition career spanned more than 40 years. From his first solo exhibition at the “Nees Morfes” gallery in 1984 to the retrospective presentation of his work at Art Project Space in 2025, he held a total of 15 solo exhibitions.

His works were presented, among other venues, at “Nees Morfes,” the Athens Art Gallery, Titanium, Gallery 7 and Thanassis Frissiras Gallery in Athens, as well as at art spaces in Thessaloniki and Patras. At the same time, he participated in more than 70 group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

In his painting, the human figure, portraits and still lifes were recurring subjects. A central element of his work was the relationship between the human figure and space, as well as the intense expressiveness of the faces.

Dark tones were one of the defining features of his visual language, with light often acquiring a symbolic or even metaphysical dimension. The result was work with a haunting atmosphere and clear references to the artistic tradition.

Alongside his career as a visual artist, Christos Markidis also developed a significant body of writing. From 1992 onward, his texts and poems were published in literary magazines, and he gradually produced an extensive body of poetry and essays.

Among his poetry collections were Monozygo-Tessera Shediasmata (1999), Eos (2001), Horses in the Dark Water (2003), Amoen (2004), Kinnavari (2009), Drakon Katilthes (2013), and Erevos i to allo fos (2020).

In 2023, the publishing house Armos released the collected volume Poems 1999–2020, bringing together more than two decades of his poetic work.

His essays included Seven Texts on Art and Katamata, a book that went through successive editions in 2005, 2014 and 2022.

A different encounter between poetry and music came in September 2022 with the CD Genethlia Zebra, released in a limited number of copies. He himself recited the poems, while the music and sound processing were by Giannis Mourtzo­poulos.