Spyros Vassiliou was born in
Galaxidi in 1903. The year of birth entered on his identity card
however reads 1902, as his parents never declared the arrival of
another child, who took the place of a brother, deceased a few
months earlier and also named Spyros Vassiliou; “thus I lived (...)
eighty years without clarifying whether I was myself or my brother.”
Thanks to a modest scholarship of short duration granted by the
elders of his birthplace, Spyros Vassiliou came to Athens to study
painting at the School of Fine Arts. His first teacher at the school
(1921-23) was Alexandros Kaloudes. The young student was
discontented with the sterile teaching methods and the mandatory
discipline with charcoal and pencil. He was the instigator, with
others, of a movement for revitalizing the school, resulting in the
election of Nikolaos Lytras and the institution of workshops.
The lively band of
“firebrands” enrolled in Lytras’ workshop (1923-26), under whose
guidance they were initiated “into the principles of the
Impressionists and the values of pure colour”. At about this point
Spyros Vassiliou’s fertile artistic career took wing, characterized
by dedication to and promotion of the individualistic nature of a
national art, and the intent to converge with contemporary artistic
trends while drawing on the precepts of Greek heritage.
On graduating from the School in 1926, Vassiliou exhibited in the
“Foyer” of the Athens Municipal Theatre, together with P. Rengos, S.
Kokkinos and A. Polykandriotis.
1927-1939
His first stage design [1929]
The Banakio Award given
by the Athens Academy for the decorative designs for the
church of Aghios Dionysios Areopagitis [1930]
In this period began his
collaboration with newspapers and magazines, in which his sketches
and illustrations were published. His first individual exhibition
took place in the “Stratigopoulou Gallery” in 1929. Views of Athens,
still lifes and his vivid and sarcastic self-portrait constitute a
small yet significant sample of his work, which attracted interest
on the part of critics.
In 1929 Fotos Politis, at the time professor at the Professional
Theatre School, noticed a Vassiliou cover of the magazine Ellenika
Grammata and invited him to design the set for I. Rizos-Neroulos’
Korakistika for the School’s annual public performance. This was the
inception of a long-standing association with the theatre,
comprising some 140 productions in all theatrical genres.
On March 25, 1930 he was
awarded the Benaki Prize of the Athens Academy for his decorative
designs for the church of Aghios Dionysios Areopagitis. The prize
money enabled him to travel to Europe, where he had the opportunity
of close contact with the original works of great painters and
contemporary art. He was particularly influenced by Guardi, C.
Lorrain and Bruegel, evidenced in such of his paintings as Laïki
Agora (Open-air Market) and Karnavali (Carnival), (1934) and Zappeio
(1935).
In 1930 he also took part in
the first exhibition of the “Techni” group, of which he was a
founding member. In the same year, in collaboration with Agenoras
Asteriadis, he published Paedika Schedia (Childhood Sketches)
showing the results of their experience and the infuence which the
students had on the teachers at the Papastratos School for Toys and
the Grevena Primary School.
Worth noting are also his
participation in 1934 in the Venice Biennale and the publication of
the album Galaxidiotika Karavia (Ships of Galaxidi) with his own
texts and depictions of the old sailing ships of his birthplace.
From 1933 to 1938 he was responsible for the stage sets and costumes
of the plays performed by Socrates Karantinos’ New Dramatic Stage.
In 1937 he exhibited in Sofia, Bulgaria, with the “Techni” group and
in 1938 took part in the Panhellenic Exhibition. In the following
year (1939) he completed the frescoes for the church of Aghios
Dionysios, which were begun in 1936.
1940-1949
Stage design[1947]
Stage design [1954]
On 27 April 1941, date of the
entry of the German forces into Athens, he married Kiki, the
daughter of George Konstantakopoulos. The couple had two daughters,
Drossoula and Dimitra.
During the years of the Occupation (1941-1945) when “paints were few
and expensive” he engaged in engraving. Spyros Vassiliou’s etchings
“constituted a special contribution to the struggle of the
intellectual world against the conqueror” (with particular emphasis
in works such as The Burial of Palamas and The Mourning of the
Kalavrytans (1943). His activity included the illustration and
underground publication of three manuscript volumes (Sikelianos’
Akritika, S. Skiptis’ Mes’ apo ta teichi and A. Theros’ Drakoyenia)
as well as woodcut prints for all the issues of Nea Estia magazine
for two years from January 1942.
In 1945 he designed the stage sets and costumes for the performances
by the “Enomeni Kallitechnes” theatre company of D.Fotiadis’
Theodora and Vassilis Rotas’ Rigas o Velestinlis. He also
collaborated for the first time with the National Theatre, designing
the sets and costumes for the performance of Sto Germa tou Heimona
directed by Socrates Karantinos.
Two years later in 1947, when he designed the sets for a production
by the Etairia Ellenikou Theatrou, he also started his teaching work
in tenure at the “Athenaion” Cultural Institute, the Athenian
Technological Institute and the School of Dramatic Art of the
National Theatre.
The year 1948 distinguished his participation in the Panhellenic
Exhibition and his first collaboration on sets and costumes with the
National Opera House. The following year among other saw his
illustrations, graphic works for the primary school Fifth Grade
Reader.
1950-1960
Invitation to the home
of Mailis in Egina [1960]
The Guggenheim award
for work on "Fota & Skies" [1960]
In 1950 Spyros Vassiliou was
involved in the founding of both the artists group “Stathme”, and of
the Hellenic Ballet where for many years he was one of Rallou
Manou’s closest collaborators. He undertook the sets and costumes
for the production by the National Theatre of José Zorrilla’s Don
Juan Tenorio, while in November of the same year he created the icon
of St. Demetrios of monumental dimensions for the central arch of
Thessaloniki’s Aristotelian University. His artistic oeuvre
comprises the design and execution of a number of decorative
programmes commissioned by public and private patrons.
In those years he was also one of the eminent painters commissioned
by the Greek National Tourist Office to design posters and publicity
material.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
The Winter’s Tale were produced by the National Theatre with his
sets and costumes in 1952, when he also took part in the fourth
Panhellenic Exhibition at the Zappeion and a year later (1953) in
the “Stathme” group exhibition at the “Galleria Nazionale d’Arte
Moderna” in Rome. This was also the year when he began a long
collaboration with Manos Katrakis, with the stage sets for the
performance of Eugenie Grandet in Thessaloniki, with costumes by
Yiannis Tsarouchis.
This decade was marked –among
the multiple and diverse occupations of Vassiliou– by his taking
part in a group exhibit of Greek art in Belgrade (1954), creating
the theme, sets and costumes for the Hellenic Ballet’s production
Helleniki Apokria with music by Mikis Theodorakis, organizing the
exhibition Neo-Byzantine Church Art at the “Detroit Institute of
Arts” (1955), collaborating in productions of the Greek Popular
Theatre, exhibiting at the “Centro per la Cooperazione Mediteranea”
in Palermo, Sicily, as well as mounting a series of individual
exhibitions (of particular note was his annual presence, from 1956
to 1959, at the “Zygos” gallery), stage sets and costumes for
Terzakis’ Theophano at the Thessaloniki Rotunda (1958), further
participations in the exhibitions: of Greek Drawing “on the Ocean
Liner Olympia” (1956); Art Grec Contemporain at the “Gallerie Creuze”
in Paris; Art Book and Etching at the “Techni Gallery”, Athens
(1958); the Panhellenic Exhibitions of 1957 and 1960; presentations
at the competition for works representing Greece for the
international Guggenheim prize (from 1958) and the Sao Paulo
Biennale (1959).
In 1960 his painting Lights
and Shadows was honoured by the Greek department of AICA with the
Guggenheim Prize for Greece.
1961-1967
The Greek representation at the biennale
of Venice [1964]
Placed at the outset of the
60s is his collaboration with Michael Cacoyiannis (1961) for the
film version of Euripides’ Electra. In that year Vassiliou also
completed the devotional frescoes for the church of Aghios Vlassis
in Xylokastro and presented an anniversary solo exhibition at the
“Zygos” gallery.
In 1962 he supervised the
Hellenic Ballet’s production of The Song of the Dead Brother to
Mikis Theodorakis’ score. The next year (1963) he designed the sets
and costumes for Richard Strauss’ Electra at Stuttgart Opera and
collaborated with Alexis Solomos and the National Theatre on
Strindberg’s The Dream Play. In 1964 he worked on Vyzantios’ Babel
(producer Karolos Koun) and Aristophanes’ Peace produced by Pelos
Katselis, staged by the Arma Theatrou.
In 1965, in the framework of the promotion of the Cypriot people’s
claim to self-determination, he elaborated for the General Press
Directorate an artistic map of the island (with the elder George
Papandreou’s message emphatically accentuated). He also undertook
the configuration of the stage of the Dora Stratou Theatre on
Philopappos Hill.
Moreover, throughout the
decade of the sixties Vassiliou became gradually recognized as one
of the most consistent chronicler of the transformations of the
modern urban environment. At the same time he consolidated his
artistic stamp of identity with the monochrome background, the
elevation of the everyday and the unorthodox juxtaposition of motley
objects. He also participated in a number of exhibitions in Greece
and abroad. Selectively, we mention his presence in group
exhibitions of Greek artists in Paris and Belgrade, in the 6th
Panhellenic Exhibition of 1963, in the Peinture Grecque
Contemporaine exhibit at the Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts and the
1964 Venice Biennale, his solo exhibition in 1965 at the Hilton,
under the general title Athens-Eretria; variations with winter
light, and at the “Upper Grosvenor Galleries” in London a year
later, as well as the inclusion of his work in the exhibition La
Semaine Grecque in Brussels in April 1967.
1969-1985
Invitation to the first retro exhibit at
the National Gallery [1975]
Last stage design [1982]
1969 is the year when he gave a personal account
of himself in the publication of his autobiographical album Lights
and Shadows and, on the initiative of friends and colleagues, his
forty years’ work in stage set design was celebrated. In 1970 he
exhibited in London and Cyprus, and for the first time a theatrical
production of ancient tragedy in Epidaurus was performed under his
artistic direction: Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides, produced by T.
Mouzenidis.
From 1971 to 1974 Spyros
Vassiliou exhibited individually in major European cities: Basel,
Paris, Zurich, Geneva, Cologne, while in 1972 the Stoa S.B., known
as Mantrotichos, came into being in his country home in Eretria,
Evvia, inaugurated with the exhibition Sponde Filias, with the
participation of Zongolopoulos, Kolefas, Baharian, Panourgias and
Tetsis. From 1974 he joined the Board of the National Opera House,
of which he was a member and chairman until 1981, as well as
presiding over its artistic committee. The same year he exhibited at
the Athens Aithoussa Technis and organized the second Sponde Filias
at the Mantroticho, together with his old ‘classmates’ Asteriadis,
Kokkinos, Polykandriotis, among others.
In 1975 the National Gallery - A. Soutzos
Museum mounted his first major retrospective exhibition. At the time
he himself estimated his paintings as amounting to about 5000 in
number. He then also took part in the Panhellenic Exhibition after a
ten-year absence and set up an individual exhibition in the Lambert
Monet gallery of Cologne. He also was the artistic supervisor of
Berlioz’ Damnation of Faust by the National Opera House at the Herod
Atticus theatre. His exhibitions in 1976-77 were out of town: in
Iraklio, (Basilica of St. Mark) and Rethymno, Crete; London, (Villiers
Gallery); Geneva (Dedale Gallery); Thessaloniki (Kohlias); Ghent and
Patras. Vassiliou’s last production as artistic adviser of the
National Opera House took place in 1978. In 1979 he took part in a
group exhibition of Greek painters in Ireland, and exhibited
individually at the University of Constança in Romania.
There followed in 1980 a solo retrospective
show in Thessaloniki (“Kohlias”), the last work he was to do for the
theatre, in 1982, starring Manos Katrakis and cooperating with
Yiannis Tsarouhis on costumes, and, in the same year, his last
exhibition on his own at the “Zygos Gallery”. The National Gallery -
A. Soutzos Museum honoured the painter with a second retrospective
in 1983.
