Biography
Fotis Kontoglou (in modern Greek: Is Φώτης Κόντογλου) known as also Apostolelis Kontoglou a Greek painter born at the end of the XIXe century (1895? - 1965) in Minor Asia and taken refuge in Greece in 1922 at the time of the Great Catastrophe.It could use the influence of its Byzantine heritage in its painting. It applied the Byzantine topics on laic subjects.
It was born in 1895 (?) in Aivali in Minor Asia. It was raised by his mother Despoina Kontoglou and her uncle Stefanos Kontoglou, which was the abbot of the monastery close to Aghia Paraskevi. It passed its childhood between the monastery, the sea and the sinners.
In 1913, his/her uncle registered it at the School of the Art schools of Athens. He travelled as from 1915 in France, Spain, Portugal, Angola, etc
He settled then with Paris. He then obtained a price for the illustrations which he had made for the work of Hamsoun Knout: Famine . Its illustrations for Pedro Kazas , a work which he itself had written made it famous.
He returned to see his family in Asia Mineure and was taken in the Grande Catastrophe which projected it with thousands of other Greeks of Turkey in Greece. In 1923, it remained in the monatères of the Athos Mount where it discovered the Byzantine pictorial techniques.
In 1925, he married Maria Hatzikambouri, originating like him in Aivali. With its apprentices Yannis Tsarouchis and Níkos Engonópoulos, he undertook to cover frescos (maintaining with the National Art gallery of Athens) the walls of his house.
In 1933, the Egyptian government invited it to work with the Copte Museum. It remained in Athens where it taught painting at the University. It had the Greek great painters of the XXe century like pupils.
It was responsible for the restoration of the frescos of the church of Perivleptos with Mystras. It created very many contemporary icons for various churches through Greece. Most remarkable are in the church of Kapnikarea (church from the University) in Athens. It painted also the monumental fresco representing the Greek Patriarches XIXe century with the town hall of Athens.
In addition to its tables, it published more than 3.000 articles, fighting in a ceaseless way for Orthodoxy and the Tradition grecque.
It was decorated about the Phoenix (Cross of Commander).
For its book Ekfrassis of the orthodoxe Iconography (Expression) It accepted the price of the Academy of Athens which decreed to him also its Distinction of Arts and Lettres for the whole of its work.
He died on July 13rd, 1965 in Athens.
External bonds
http://www.kontoglou.gr/en/
| Random links: | Urodele | Moslim Democratische Partij | National park of Velavadar | Thomas Dunn | Boxoffice France 1996 | Île_de_Kotlin |