Kotzamani Maria (1938 - 2012)

Born in Athens in 1938, she studied art history and journalism in Paris (Sorbonne and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes). Upon her return to Greece she worked as a journalists for Eikones magazine and later for the newspaper Messimvrini. She was also a regular contributor to Zygos magazine until 1967.
In 1969 she worked as art critic for the newspaper Apogevmatini. One of her reviews on an exhibition of Vlassis Caniaris led to her arrest by the dictatorial regime, after which she was unable to work for the media. After the fall of the Junta she took over the art column in TA NEA newspaper. She collaborated also with magazines (Themata Chorou kai Technon, Sima, Trito Mati, EIkastika, Hellenica) and worked on special educational features for television and the state radio’s Third Programme. Between 1984 and 1994 she was the art editor of Eikones magazine and art advisor to the Ethnos newspaper. She wrote dictionary entries for Greek artists for the Dictionary of Greek Artists (Melissa) and the World Biographical Dictionary (Ekdotiki Athinon).
After the late 1990s she focused on organising major retrospectives for Greek artists in various Greek museums and galleries, such as the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery, the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Athens School of Fine Arts, dealing mostly with Greek artists of the post-war generation and artists of the Greek Diaspora.
She was commissioner of Greece in international events such as the Biennale of Alexandria (1978), Venice (1980) and Sao Paolo (1986), the International Foire of Tokyo (1990), and the Greek events at Europalia (Brussels, 1982). She also sat as consultant in various committees of the Ministry of Culture. An active member of the Greek section of AICA, she sat on the board of AICA Hellas for a number of years. She was killed in a road accident in Athens in September, 2012.