Chronis Botsoglou: The great painter and sculptor has passed away

He died renowned painter, engraver, and sculptor Chronis Botsoglou, at the age of 81. His funeral will be a political one, and the date has not yet been set. The Chronis Botsoglou was born in Thessaloniki in 1941.. He studied at Sarafianos' tutorial school and attended the Athens School of Fine Arts (1960-1965), in Yannis Moralis' workshop, with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation.

He was still a student when he held his first solo exhibition in Athens (1964, Center for Technological Applications), with works that revealed influences from Bouzianis. He continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1969-1972, with a state scholarship).

During this period, his painting became more realistic and linked to his political activism. In a similar vein, he participated (along with G. Valavanidis, K. Dinga, K. Katzourakis, and G. Psychopedis) in the founding and exhibitions by the group «New Greek Realists» (1971-1973), which presented (in Greece) works with critical content during the period of the dictatorship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Tk0zdmfX4

Her participation in collective activities began before the dictatorship, when she was a member of the «Art Group A» and collaborated with the Art Review. She also collaborated with the Free Theater (1973), the «Center for Visual Arts» (1974-1976), and later became a member of the «Group for Communication and Education in Art» and the «Engraving Center.».

The realistic period of his painting, beyond its obvious ideological background, was also a period of research into the field of design and color composition of the human form within the visual arts. This is where he'll be focusing his attention in the coming years. Towards the end of the 1970s, as his political activity waned, his artistic pursuits expanded. The rendering of space in dynamic interdependence with human presence highlights the experiential dimension of his painting and allows for the emotional charge of the forms and the gradual dominance of autobiographical elements. His work is presented in consecutive thematic sections, with existential references, exhaustive processing of form, and the physicality of the painting material as its main characteristics. His paintings often coexist with sculptures.

In 1989, he was elected professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he served as rector (2001-2005) and taught until 2008.

He has held more than 50 solo exhibitions and dozens of group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He participated in the Sao Paulo Biennial (1969) and the Printmaking Biennial (Heidelberg, 1988). Retrospective exhibitions of his work were presented at the Municipal Gallery of Rhodes (1986), the Vafopouleio Cultural Center (Thessaloniki, 1991), the Cycladic Art Gallery (Ermoupoli, 2008), and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens, 2010).

The his important work «Personal Nekyia,» a visual essay on memory, was first presented at the Benaki Museum (2002) and then at the Famagusta Gate (2003), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (2003), the Cycladic Art Gallery (retrospective, Ermoupoli, Syros, 2008), the National Museum of Contemporary Art (2010), the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice (2011), and at 16 Fokionos Negri (2014). He belongs to the collection of Laris and Sotiris Feliou. Chronis Botsoglou has illustrated poetry collections and collaborated with writers and theorists, regularly publishing his own texts. He has published three books and an album of computer-generated works (2007). In 2009, a monograph on his work was published. Chronis Botsoglou was a guest on ERT2«s »Monogramma" program.