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Agenor ASTERIADIS
Greek, 1898-1977

Still life with fruit
tempera on paper

signed lower left
dated 1943 lower right
28 x 33 cm


PROVENANCE

private collection, Athens


1 500 / 1 800 €

Agenor Asteriadis was born in Larissa. In 1915 he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts, Athens, where he studied painting under Georgios Jakobides, Georgios Roilos and Spyros Vikatos.

 

Four years after graduating, in 1925, he was appointed as a secondary school art teacher in Grevena, northern Greece. As of this time, he became acquainted with the beautiful, surrounding scenery which inspired his first book Το σπίτι του Σβάρτς στα Αμπελάκια, published in Athens in 1928.

 

Asteriadis was a great admirer of Greek folk art and the simplicity of children’s drawing. Thus in 1933, together with his long-time friend Spyros Vassiliou, he published the book Παιδικά Σχέδια (children’s drawings).

 

Throughout his life, Asteriadis worked on many ecclesiastical fresco commissions such as the church of the Virgin Mary at Trahones and the church of Saint Vlasios at Xylokastro, the second of which he painted together with Spyros Vassiliou. Additionally, he illustrated a large number of children’s, ecclesiastical and literary books.

 

As an active artist of his generation, he co-founded and helped run Art Group 1930. He participated in major exhibitions, both in Greece and overseas such as the 1934 and 1940 Venice Biennales. He also exhibited in 1935 in Vienna and Chicago, in 1937 in Paris, in 1947 at Grekisk Konst, Konstakademien in Stockholm, in 1953 in Rome and Ottawa, in 1954 in Belgrade, in 1955 in Goteborg, in 1959 at the Sao Paolo Biennale and the Alexandria Biennale, in 1962 in Bucharest and Lugano, in 1963 in Moscow and Belgrade, in 1964 in Brussels and in 1965 in Buenos Aires.

 

Asteriadis is one of the most important of a group of artists, who are collectively referred to as the Thirties Generation. They are attributed to having created a renaissance of Greek art in the Interwar years, combining the teachings of the European avant-garde while referencing their Greek heritage.

 

His work can be found in τhe National Gallery of Greece, the Municipal Gallery of Athens, the Averoff Gallery, the Leventis Gallery, the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation, the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation and many other public and private collections.