Gerassimos Steris, a prominent Greek artist, was born in Cephalonia in 1898. After attending the Greek-French Lycée in Alexandria, he pursued his artistic education at The School of Fine Arts in Athens, studying under notable mentors such as Dimitrios Geraniotis and Georgios Jakovides.

Steris’s artistic journey took him to Paris, where he continued his studies at the Académie Julian alongside influential artists like Picasso and Derain. His time in Paris also saw him delve into philosophy, psychology at the Sorbonne, and fresco and interior architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts. It was during this period that he met gallery owner Manolis Segredakis, who became a key supporter of his work.

In 1931, Steris held his first solo exhibition in Greece, which sparked critical debate and is considered the manifesto of modernism in the country. His artistic endeavors extended beyond Greece, as he moved to the United States in 1937, where he held a solo show in New York and worked in Hollywood for major film-making companies. He also contributed to the Greek pavilion at the New York World Fair and became an American citizen under the name Guelfo Ammon d’Este.

Throughout his career, Steris’s artistic legacy continued to grow, with his work being featured in numerous exhibitions and finding a home in esteemed institutions such as The National Gallery of Greece, The Municipal Gallery of Athens, The Averoff Gallery, The Leventis Gallery, and The National Bank of Greece, among others.

In 1985, Steris returned to New York, where he passed away two years later. Despite Greece losing track of him since the early Fifties, his artistic legacy continued to be celebrated through posthumous retrospectives and presentations of his work, including a retrospective organized by the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki in 1991 and exhibited in Athens the following year. His impact on the art world and his ability to bridge classical aesthetics with modern sensibilities solidify his position as one of the forerunners of Greek modernism.