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LEON KALOGEROPOULOS
(1926 -2002)
Leon kalogeropoulos was the son of Nicos Kalogeropoulos, the distinguished Greek marine artist. Leon followed in his father’s footsteps and was soon recognised as the top Greek marine artist of the last quarter of the twentieth century. The younger Leon learned his trade at his father’s studio and then continued his studies and art education in Paris where he spent his early adulthood. He then travelled to Africa and especially Senegal where he married a Senegalese beauty.
The restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974 saw Leon Kalogeropoulos return to his birthplace, Athens, where he devoted himself to painting marine works of art. His early paintings of the years 1974-1990 are a hymn to blue seas in very soft hues with usually fishing boats timidly appearing in the distance.
Kalogeropoulos gradually replaced the light blues and aqua marine colours with deeper Mediterranean blues. He depicted more robust merchant ships and fishing boats in atmospheric conditions that conveyed the drama and reality of life experienced on ships and seas around Athens. For these reasons this later work of the period 1990 – 2002 is considered more accomplished, more desirable and more expressive of the artist than that of his earlier period.
Leon’s work can be found in major Greek collections and museums including the Maritime Museum in Piraeus, the Greek Pinakotheke in Athens, and the Vorres Museum in Peania, Attica. In our long conversations together Kalogeropoulos repeatedly told me that “there is no Greek shipping tycoon that does not own works of mine.”
I met Leon in early 1999 and I loved his work the moment I saw it. My commission of 32 paintings were completed by August of the following year 2000 and, as promised to him in our first meeting, I held a significant exhibition of his work at the Hellenic Centre in London in October 2000. Entitled Athens-Nicosia 2000, and in celebration of the second millennium, the exhibition included eighteen paintings of Kalogeropoulos and thirty-six paintings by Vasilis Zenetzis. His work was much admired by the Greek ship owners of London at the opening ceremony of the exhibition with Mr Kouloukoundis speaking on the importance of marine life for Greece. The late George Hajifanis also gave a speech on the importance of the Parthenon to Hellenism, the world and Cyprus. Kalogeropoulos’ art first appeared at the major auction houses of London in the early 2000s and realised much success.
The present exhibition also includes a number of other marine artists from Greece and Britain and notably the renowned impressionist artist Vasilis Zenetzis famous for his colourful depictions of Greek seas and Greek locations in both Greece and Cyprus.
1: LEON KALOGEROPOULOS
Merchant Ship At Sea
A symphony of stormy seas, threatening skies and a ship in full sail braving the treacherous weather conditions signed, oil on canvas, painted circa 1975-76
16: Leon Kalogeropoulos
Fishing Boat in Full Sail
signed, oil on canvas
50 x 70 cm
Provenance:
commissioned artist 1999-2000
Exhibited:
Athens – Nicosia 2000
Hellenic Centre London, 1st – 30th October 2000, no 40
Illustrated in catalogue – brochure
18: Leon Kalogeropoulos
Full Sail, Clipper in Open Seas
signed, oil on canvas
70 x 100 cm
Commissioned to artist
Painted 1999-2000
Exhibited:
Athens – Nicosia 2000
Hellenic Centre, London 1st – 30th October 2000, no 31
Illustrated in catalogue – brochure
20: Leon Kalogeropoulos
Clipper and fishing boat sailing closely a merchant ship with a fishing boat close to it. A rare painting for kalogeropoulos,
signed, oil on canvas
70 x 110
Provenance:
Commissioned to artist
Painted 2001
