Writings C

Yannis Spyropoulos was born in 1912 in Pylos, Messinia, and studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts with Thompopoulos, Argyros and Vikatos (1930-1936). With a three-year scholarship from the Academy of Athens, he continued his studies in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts with Charles Guerin and at the Colarossi and Julian Academies (1938-1940). He returned to Greece with the outbreak of war in 1940. From 1946 to 1967 he worked with the Organisation of the Workers' Home as a cultural events organiser. His early work was within the framework of figurative painting, but gradually after 1954 he moved away from conventional representation and moved towards abstraction, being one of the first Greek painters to move towards abstract art. His exhibition activity in Greece was limited, with few solo exhibitions in Athens and Thessaloniki, few presentations of his printmaking work after 1980 and rare participation in group exhibitions. He represented Greece at the Biennale of Alexandria (1955), Sao Paulo (1957) and Venice (1960, with Kontopoulos, Lamera, Mylonas and Papadimitriou), where he won the Unesco Prize. He also participated in Documenta III (1964, Kassel, Germany), in the Greek and international Pavilion of Expo 1970 in Osaka (Japan), in the Documenta Sammlung, Kunsteverein (Kassel, 1975) and in many other international events. In contrast to his exhibition activity, he was active in the exhibition business in the Kunsthalle, Kassel, Kassel Art Museum, Kunstverein, Kunstverein, Kunstverein, Kassel Art Museum, Kassel Art Museum, Kassel, Kunstverein, Kunstverein, and in many other international exhibitions. In contrast to his exhibition activity in Greece, he has presented his work in numerous solo exhibitions outside the borders, in galleries and museums in Europe, America, Australia, Canada, Canada, Israel and Cyprus. His international presence has established him as an important representative of European abstract art. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Ostend (Belgium, 1961), the Order of the Phoenix (Greece, 1966) and the Gottfried von Herder Prize of the University of Vienna (Austria, 1978). In 1990, the Yannis and Zoe Spyropoulou Foundation was established, with the primary concern of the foundation being the organized presentation of the artist's paintings, which were little known in Greece. Thus, from 1994 to 1998, posthumous retrospective exhibitions of his work were held at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki, 1994), the National Gallery (Athens, 1955) and in many other Greek cities. His last major retrospective was held at the Benaki Museum in 2010.