Kapantaes Vassos

The sculptor from Asia Minor studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts with Kostas Dimitriadis and Michalis Tombros, and archaeology at the University of Athens. He received many awards in Panhellenic sculpture competitions as well as honorary awards in international events. An artist with diverse interests, he published the poetry collections “Εν Περγάμω” [In Pergamum] (1953) and “Τη Κύπρω” [To Cyprus] (1975); his monograph “Η Ειρηνική παλιννόστηση του Ελληνισμού στη Μικρασία” [The peaceful rehabilitation of Greek populations in Asia Minor] was posthumously published (1992).

His ideology prevented him from presenting his work in solo exhibitions; instead, he participated in group shows, including medal fairs and Panhellenic exhibitions; in 1992, a posthumous retrospective of his oeuvre was held at the Municipality of Athens Cultural Centre.

His place of origin, Pergamos, Asia Minor, and the fascination exerted by the lost Ionian homeland, helped establish the history of the region and its people as the thematic backbone of Vassos Kapantaes’s work. In his strife to give form to the emotions inspired in him by this age-old cradle of civilisations, he employed traditional forms along with contemporary achievements, creating works which vividly evoke archaic art with their stylised, unadorned approach, lack of superfluous elements, focus on the essential, and abstract and cubist blend. The synthesis of all these elements gave birth to artworks of a pronouncedly symbolic, often expressionistic character. The same applies to the artist’s reliefs and medals, which also betray his extraordinary skill in capturing detail.