Logothetis Stathis (1925 - 1997)

He was born in 1925 in Pyrgos, Eastern Rumelia (today Burgas, Bulgaria). He settled in Thessaloniki with his family in 1934. Initially, he engaged in music, abandoning his studies in medicine (1943). He received a violin diploma by the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki (1951-1952) and continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy (1952-1953). From 1954 onwards, he chose to devote himself to painting. Up until the end of the ‘70s, he travelled and painted in various European countries from time to time (Western and Eastern Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia), on scholarships by the Goethe Institute, the Dante Alighieri Institute, D.A.A.D., etc. After 1973, he became an Athens resident.
His early painting is experimental on abstract forms and the incorporation of diverse materials and objects into the artwork. This phase of his work was presented at his first solo exhibition (Thessaloniki YMCA, 1959) as well as at his next solo shows, approximately until the mid ‘60s.
During his mature work period, he abandons the conventional use of the canvas and suggests a subversive function of art, under the context of the era’s international avant-garde trends, in a neo-Dadaist spirit. His artistic constructions by cheap, worn materials, fabrics and strings in particular, highlight the ravages of time and the role of chance in art. Often, the process of creating a work requires the active participation of the viewer or the physical presence of the artist. The call for reciprocal communication reveals an effort, one of the most daring ever occuring in Greece, to identify art with life. His collaboration with his brother, composer Anestis Logothetis in music-visual art events (1971, 1982) is of particular interest.
He exchibited his work in solo, group and international exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He participated, among others, in the following festivals: Avantgarde Griechenland (Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, 1967-1969), 12th Biennial of Sao Paulo (1975), 9th Painting Festival Cagnes-sur-mer (1977), where he received a distinction, Avanguardia e Sperimentazione (Modena and Venice, 1978), Europalia (Brussels, 1982), etc.
His artistic activity ceased as early as 1987, when he contracted an incurable disease that developed into paralysis.
Before his death (Athens, 1997), his work was presented in two retrospective exhibitions, at the Satire gallery, Heidelberg (1990) and at the Warehouse 1 exhibition hall of the Thessaloniki Port Authority (1994).s