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ELECTRA TEGOPOULOU (Greece, Athens b. 1942 / act: Athens) |
Electra Tegopoulou was born on 3 August 1942 in Athens, Greece. Her grandfather was Louizos Iliou, director of Robert College in Constantinople, and her mother was Tanta Tegopoulou, Philologist at Pierce College. She graduated from Pierce College in 1960, and studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Art under Yiorgos Mavroidis between 1961 and 1964. Electra Tegopoulou reportedly paints only at night, using a 1000-Watt bulb. She is used to a nocturnal schedule owing to her experience of newspaper journalism. She likes the stillness of night, always in the company of classical music; especially Albinoni's Adagio, and Mozart's Requiem. In conversation with Megakles, she explained: "I prefer to leave my works without a title because I wish to liberate their beholder. I paint whatever I feel like. Nevertheless, there is always a distant reference to the body, something to do with the genetic cycle. My painting is an internal process. It may as well ascribe to the movement of Expressionism, for bringing out emotion without depending on models. My works end up being very different one from another. I usually leave my paintings and turn back to them repeatedly, such as Fires and Souls, but again there are a few paintings that I execute at one go, such as the Untitled of 2005. When I look back however, my feeling is that everything remains untitled and unfinished.
Electra Tegopoulou has had two personal exhibitions in Athens, the first at Idolo Gallery in 1993, and the second at Titanium Gallery in 2005. She has also taken part in group exhibitions at notable galleries, such as The House of Cyprus of Athens, Ersi's Gallery of Athens, and twice at Nea Epipeda Gallery on Paros Island.
Apart from her painting, Electra Tegopoulou is a founding member of Eleftherotypia newspaper. It is also worth noting that Tegopoulou was instrumental in the making of the documentrary film on Yiorgos Mavroidis (1913-2003) commissioned to film-director Stavros Stratigakos by the Benaki Museum, which materilaized in 2002, a little before the master's death.
Electra Tegopoulou continues to live and work in Athens.
[Megakles Rogakos 12/2005]
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
MEGAKLES ROGAKOS; DORA ILIOPOULOU-ROGAN; MANOS STEFANIDIS Electra's Adagio 2006 ACG Art, Athens
ILIOPOULOU-ROGAN, DORA Album: The American College of Greece: A Tribute to the Alumnae Artists of Pierce College 2006 ACG Art, Athens
