• What kind of relationship did Fotis Kontoglou have with Mount Athos?
• How did that influence his painting and shape his spiritual questionings?
• What effect did it have on his writings?

  This new exhibition by the Mount Athos Center attempts, through some of Fotis Kontoglou’s artworks and writings, to shed light on his relationship with life and art on Mount Athos.
 

His first visit to Athos in 1922-1923, together with his later visits, pilgrimages and wanderings, his fraternal relationship with Athonite monks in the hermitages of Kafsokalyvia and, above all, his contact with the work of great icon painters, such as Manuel Panselinos, Theophanes the Cretan and Frangos Katelanos, had a decisive influence on his subsequent development as a painter and iconographer.

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A variety of documents from the time he spent in the Athonite State, drawings in ink on paper, paintings in tempera, icons, letters, published works, personal possessions and, above all, intimate personal memories are presented in the exhibition, which opens on 23 October 2025 in the exhibition space of the Mount Athos Center, with the invaluable collaboration of the following bodies:
Holy Community of Mount Athos ∙ Holy Monastery of Gregoriou ∙ Holy Skete of the Holy Trinity - Kafsokalyvia ∙ National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum ∙ Byzantine and Christian Museum ∙ Library of the Hellenic Parliament ∙ ERT Archive ∙ Tellogleio Fine Arts Foundation of AUTH ∙ Library & Information Centre of AUTH ∙ Central Municipal Library of Thessaloniki ∙ Lyceum Club of Greek Women ∙ The families of Panayiotis and Fotis Martinos

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Fotis Kontoglou (1895–1965)
‘I didn’t expect to find such a perfect art in the monasteries’ churches. From what I’d read about Byzantine art, I’d got the idea that this art is less worthy of attention than that of the Italian Renaissance. But one can see from the few pieces I provide here that there are on Athos paintings of the rarest perfection, such as Katelanos’ Archangel Gabriel and Merkourios. As far as I at least can tell, it’s very rare for anyone to come across works created with such a wise knowledge of painting and full of such bold rhythm.    
I approached these paintings with a sense that is due to a temperament formed in the Byzantine mould and to a strict Christian upbringing.
I’ve often needed to carry out what you might call a kind of reconstitutive work, as many of these wondrous frescoes have faded and are completely indiscernible. But my fervent desire won out in the end and I’ve managed to preserve almost intact on paper works most of which can only be surmised from what remains.  
I don’t want to attach greater value to my work than what it actually has. I just want to say that I didn’t simply extract these beautiful works of art but I also interpreted them.’
From the text by Fotis Kontoglou in his album
The Art of Athos, November 1923.

 In his introductory text in the forthcoming exhibition catalogue, the artist Giorgos Kordis notes:
Mount Athos: a lifelong journey
Fotis Kontoglou was a great and important figure in the development of modern Greek culture. Not only for his personal achievements in the fields of painting and literature, but also for the inspiration he gave to others, who, to a greater or lesser extent, followed his call to return to tradition.
Kontoglou had an almost unparalleled influence on the development of ecclesiastical painting, achieving something that few have accomplished in the history of art: he revived a style that had been forgotten for about a century, the so-called Byzantine style, and established it as the most suitable style for painting ecclesiastical icons in the Orthodox Church. Without Fotis Kontoglou, the history of modern Greek art would have been different. [….] The other great experience he gained from his visit to Mount Athos was the discovery of the painting he found mainly in the large katholika. 
Although he did not leave extensive written accounts or descriptions, it seems that he was deeply moved by Byzantine painting, which for the first time in his life he beheld in such quantity and quality and which was a revelation to him. His negative impression of Byzantine painting, apparently due to his Western education, was completely overturned. He could not believe that such an art existed on Athos – an art which, in his own words, included works with “such a wise knowledge of painting” and were “full of such bold rhythm” [….]
Kontoglou saw the Byzantine painting tradition as a precious legacy, one with which he engaged in artistic discourse and did not merely copy in a mechanical manner. Thus, while his work contains clear allusions to‘schools’ and currents in Byzantine art, it has a distinct personal character, a style all of its own, and a beautiful inner development and trajectory.

INFORMATION

Duration of exhibition: 23 October 2025 – 21 March 2026

The exhibition will be officially opened by His Excellency the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Constantine Tasoulas, on Sunday 26 October.  

Visiting hours for the public:

Monday & Wednesday: 09.00–16.00

Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 09.00–20.00

Saturday: 09.00–15:00

Last admission 30 mins. before closing time

Sunday: closed

Visits by organised and school groups may be arranged by contacting tel. no. 2310 263 308.    
MOUNT ATHOS CENTER
109 Egnatia St., Thessaloniki 546 35
Τ. +30 2310 263 308 & 2310 250 648
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