Jannis Spyropoulos

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Jannis Spyropoulos ( Greek Γιάννης Σπυρόπουλος , born March 12, 1912 in Pylos , Greece ; † May 18, 1990 in Athens ) was a Greek painter . He was an important representative of the artistic avant-garde of Greek painting after the Second World War .

life and work

Jannis Spyropoulos studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1933 to 1938 . In 1938 Spyropoulos received a scholarship and continued his studies at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris until 1940. After returning to Greece, he settled in Athens, where his first solo exhibition took place in 1950.

At this time he began abstract painting, inspired by the current French art scene, especially the work of Paul Cézanne . The peculiarity of his painting art lay in the architectural composition of the pictures on the one hand and an eruptive, spontaneous, aggressive brushwork on the other. He used the brush on all sides and scratched lines with the brush handle in the layers of paint on his mostly large-format canvas paintings. He also created numerous collages in the 1960s. His artistic contribution to abstraction is one of the most important chapters in the history of contemporary Greek art.

In the late 1950s, Spyropoulos' abstract painting received international attention. His work has been shown at important international exhibitions. In 1960 he was on the XXX. Venice Biennale , represented Greece there and received the UNESCO prize there . He was represented with three oil paintings as a participant in documenta III 1964 in Kassel in the section " Aspects 1964 ".

In 1976 Jannis Spyropoulos set up his house and studio in Ekali . Today this house is the seat of the Spyropoulos Foundation and the Jannis Spyropoulos Museum . A major retrospective of his art was shown in many Greek cities in 1994. His paintings are also part of the collection of the National Gallery of Greece in Athens.

Exhibitions

Literature and Sources

documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Spyropoulos, Jannis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Σπυρόπουλος, Γιάννης (Greek); Spyropoulos, Giannis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Pylos , Greece
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1990
Place of death Athens