Fonis Zoglopitis (; 1930–24 April 2015) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Biography

Zoglopitis was born in 1930 in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

.Dοra Kominι-Dialeti (ed.),
Λεξικό Ελλήνων καλλιτεχνών. Ζωγράφοι, γλύπτες, χαράκτες, 16ος - 20ός αιώνας
', Vol. 1, Athens 1997, Melissa, p. 442. His father, who died when Zoglopitis was still a child, was from Rachoula, a village in Karditsa Region, while his mother was born in

Polygyros Polygyros (Greek languages, Greek: Πολύγυρος) is a town and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Central Macedonia, Central Macedonia, Greece. It is the capital of Chalkidiki. Geography Polygyros town (pop. 7,779 at ...

. After his father’s death, he settled with the rest of the family in Polygyros, where he spent his childhood. He was a self-taught painter, and at first he worked as a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. His first group exhibition was organised at Kochlias Gallery in Thessaloniki in 1972. The following years Zoglopitis returned to his birthplace and moreover he resigned from his previous occupation in order to pursue a career as a professional painter. Zoglopitis was a long-time partner and friend of scholar and gallerist Dinos Christianopoulos. He also presented his artworks in various group and solo exhibitions all over

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. In 1999 a retrospective exhibition of his work was organised by the Municipality of Thessaloniki at Vafopouleion Cultural Center. Zoglopitis was a member of

KKE The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

, and also an active member of various cultural and social groups. He died on 24 April 2015. His daughter, Amalia Zoglopitou, is also a painter.

Legacy

As an artist, Zoglopitis was a proponent of

Postimpressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

and

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

. He was mainly a landscape painter, although many of his works include human figures, and nudes. Zoglopitis’ paintings are held by the Municipal Art Gallery of Thessaloniki, the

Society for Macedonian Studies The Society for Macedonian Studies () was founded on April 29, 1939, in Thessaloniki, Greece.Thorsten Kruse, Hubert Faustmann, Sabine Rogge. The purpose of the Society is to foster research on the language, archaeology, history and folklore of M ...

, the

Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation The Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation (formerly known in English as Teloglion Foundation of Art; ) is an art museum located in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. History It was established in 1972 and it was named after Nestor and Aliki Te ...

, and private collections.

References

Bibliography

*Dοra Kominι-Dialeti (ed.),
Λεξικό Ελλήνων καλλιτεχνών. Ζωγράφοι, γλύπτες, χαράκτες, 16ος - 20ός αιώνας
', Vol. 1, Athens 1997, Melissa. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoglopitis, Fonis 1930 births 2015 deaths People from Thessaloniki Greek Macedonians Greek painters