Giorgos Gounaropoulos ( el, Γιώργος Γουναρόπουλος, 22 March 1890 – 17 August 1977) was a Greek artist.

Life

Giorgos Gounaropoulos was born in

Sozopol Sozopol ( bg, Созопол , el, Σωζόπολη, translit=Sozopoli) is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the ...

, Bulgaria, on 22 March 1890, the sixth child of a Greek family. In the early 1900s the Bulgarian government put pressure on Greek-origin families in the country to adopt the Bulgarian national identity. The family decided to move to Greece, and in 1904 settled in Athens. From 1907 to 1912 Gounaropoulos studied at the

Athens School of Fine Arts The Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA; el, Ανωτάτη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών, ΑΣΚΤ, literally: Highest School of Fine Arts), is Greece's premier Art school whose main objective is to develop the artistic talents of its students. ...

under Spyros Vikatos,

Dimitrios Geraniotis Dimitrios Geraniotis ( el, Δημήτριος Γερανιώτης, 1871 – 23 May 1966) was a Greek portrait painter and professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Life Dimitrios Geraniotis was born in Athens in 1871. He studied painting at ...

Georgios Roilos Georgios Roilos ( el, Γεώργιος Ροϊλός; 1867 – 28 August 1928) was one of the most important and influential Greek painters of the late 19th-early 20th century. He belonged to the so-called "Munich School". His major works include h ...

and

Georgios Jakobides Georgios Jakobides (Γεώργιος Ιακωβίδης; 11 January 1853 – 13 December 1932) was a painter and one of the main representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the Munich School. He founded and was the first curator of the Nati ...

. He was awarded an Averoff scholarship, and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(1914–18) he went to Paris in 1919 and attended the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

and the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acadé ...

. While in Paris he participated in

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

s, and held his first solo exhibition at the Vavin-Raspail Gallery in 1926. Gounaropoulos staged his first exhibition in Athens in 1924 and a controversial solo exhibition at the Stratigopoulos gallery in 1929. He returned to Athens permanently in 1931. He continued to exhibit in solo and group shows, including international shows in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

in 1959 and

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

in 1963. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1958. He died in 1977.

Work

Gounaropoulos began painting in academic style, then was influenced by

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

and

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

, and eventually developed a very personal surrealistic style. His paintings have a dreamy and lyrical quality inspired by ancient Greek art. He illustrated collections of poetry, made wall paintings for the Municipal Council of Athens (1937–39) and painted the iconography for the chapel of the Public Hospital of Volos (1951). His home was donated by his family to become the home of the Gounaropoulos Museum in 1979. Examples of his work are also held by the

Municipal Art Gallery of Ioannina The Municipal Art Gallery of Ioannina ( el, Δημοτική Πινακοθήκη Ιωαννίνων) is an art museum in Ioannina, Greece that has been open in its current building since 2000. The collection of over 500 items ranges from classical ...

Notes

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gounaropoulos, Giorgos 1890s births 1977 deaths Greek artists Bulgarian emigrants to Greece Bulgarian people of Greek descent People from Sozopol Artists from Athens