Biographies

Mastichiadis Fotis

Fotis Mastichiadis was born in 1913 in Ayvalik, Asia Minor. In 1922, during the Asia Minor Disaster, his family fled to Mytilene and the following year they settled in Thessaloniki. At a young age, in 1929, he started contributing illustrations, cartoons and drawings to newspapers and magazines (“Φως”, “Μακεδονία”, “Διάπλαση των Παίδων”, etc.).

In 1939 he settled in Athens and worked in the graphic arts enterprise ASPIOTI – ELKA learning engraving techniques of engraving, mainly lithography and chromolithography. At the same time he was an apprentice to Photis Kontoglou for two years. In 1942 he was hired by the Bank of Greece (banknotes department) where he worked closely with engraver Alexandros Koroyannakis. He held his first solo exhibition at Eoliki Stegi in 1982, a tribute to the Asia Minor Disaster. He also produced many portraits of Greek poets and illustrated poems from Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal which he presented at the Iakinthos Art Gallery in 1993. His work has been presented in several solo exhibitions, including, in 1986, the large retrospective exhibition in Athens (Chryssothemis art gallery) and in 1995 in Patras (Municipal Gallery) and in Athens (Museum Marika Kotopouli).

He also took part in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad and in several Pan-Hellenic exhibitions. From 1983 he taught engraving at the Prefectural Committee of Popular Education of Paleo Faliro. He was also an avid chess player (Champion of Greece in 1949). Fotis Mastichiadis died in Athens in 1997. He was a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and president of the Paleo Faliro Artists’ Group.

Artist's artworks