The Girl with the pigeon
Vasso Katraki was born in 1914 in Aitoliko, Aetolia-Acarnania. She studied painting under K. Parthenis and engraving under Jean Kefalinos at the Athens School of fine Arts (1936 – 1940). She graduated with a scholarship in painting, an award and two honours in engraving. She was among the students of Kefalinos who designed posters for WWII (1940 – 41) and took part in the Resistance. She illustrated many illegal prints with woodcuts. In 1949 she was among the founding members of the group “Stathmi” and in 1955 she held her first solo exhibition (Zachariou art gallery).
During the years of the dictatorship she was exiled to Gyaros where she started painting on pebbles with black ink. She presented her work in several solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad (e.g., Beijing – 1964, Budapest – 1965, Exeter – 1968, Nicosia – 1970 and 1971, Ora art gallery in Athens – 1972, Kochlias art gallery in Thessaloniki – 1973, and at the Basilica of St. Mark in Heraklion – 1973, etc.) He took part in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad and in international events such as the Ljubljana Biennale (from 1956 to 1977), the Tokyo Biennale (from 1960 to 1970), the Sao Paulo Biennale (1957), and the Venice Biennale (1966) where she won the Tamarind International Lithography Award. She was also awarded in 1958 at the Alexandria Biennale (First Engraving Award) and at the Lugano Engraving Biennale (Premium ex æquo).
In 1976 she won the first prize at the Intergrafik International Exhibition in East Berlin. In 1980 a large retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum. Vasso Katraki died in Athens in 1988. Her work has been presented posthumously in many honorary retrospective exhibitions and tributes (Athens Municipal Art Gallery – 1991, Patras Municipal Gallery – 1992, Famagusta Gate in Famagusta, Cyprus – 1994, Nees Morfes art gallery in Athens – 1994, Vellidis Cultural Centre in Thessaloniki – 1998, etc.). In 1995, the Centre for Engraving Arts – Vasso Katraki Museum was founded in Aitoliko and was inaugurated in 2006. The museum houses a permanent exhibition of her work. She was an honorary member of the Academia Fiorentina delle Arti del Disegno (1965) and a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.