Artist’s CV
He was born in Aivali (Kydonias) in Asia Minor in 1895. In 1913 he entered the third year of the School of Fine Arts in Athens. A few months later he left the school and left to continue his visual studies in Paris with financial help from his uncle. From 1933 he taught art history and painting at the American College, where he met Karolos Koun, and had as students the great painters Yiannis Tsarouchis and Nikos Eggonopoulos.
He was honored with many awards, the most important being the Athens Academy Award. He wrote studies on Byzantine art and works of travel literature and prose. The first appearance of Kontoglou in letters took place in 1918 with the publication of Pedro Kazas’s novella in limited copies. In 1928 his book Travels was published and in 1935 the Astrolabe. His writing activity (mainly religious) in the mid-1940s and until the end of his life is more intense.
Painter, with great achievements in iconography, and prose writer. His real name was Fotis Apostolelis. After the Asia Minor disaster he settled permanently in Athens. His work, written in the vernacular, highlights Greece, Orthodoxy, the pure tradition of the Greek East; it is replete with various elements related to the historical course and history of Asia Minor Hellenism. His works: Travels, Pedro Kazas, Indomitable souls, The painful Romiosyni, etc.
Ergography:
I. Prose
Pedro Cazas. Ayvali, 1918
The art of Athos
Travels in various parts of Greece and the East, descriptive of what remains of the Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian, and Turkish ages, 1928.
Icones et fresques d’art Byzantine, 1932
Frescoes of the Byzantine churches of Hymettos, 1933
The Astrolabe. Strange book written by Fotis Kontoglou, 1935
Famous men and forgotten. Historical book written by Fotis Kontoglou, 1942
The god Konanos and his Monastery called Immersion; History written by Fotis Kontoglou, 1943
Stories and Incidents; and Other Literary Writings by Fotis Kontoglou, 1944
Story of a ship that was lost on a dry land; As adapted from some old papers by Fotis Kontoglous, 1944
Africa and the South Seas, 1944
The Secret Garden, 1944
Greek sailors in the South Seas, 1944
The corsair Pedro Casas; Incredible story taken from a manuscript found in Oporto; Printed and painted by Fotis Kontoglou, 1944
The Ancient People of the East, 1945
Life and State of Vlasios Pascal by Christon Salou, 1947
Life and Asceticism of our Holy Father Saint Mark the Departed from Athens, 1947
Anthos, words were anthologized by the Fathers, 1949
Source of life, were the words of the theologians explained according to power, 1951
Images of the Virgin Mary, 1953
Life of the Holy Hieromartyr Therapont the Miracle Worker, 1955
Byzantine art or liturgical painting, 1956
Sanctified Greece, 1957
Holy mountains, 1958
Saints Raphael and Nicholas and the icon of Christ found in Karyan of Thermi (Lesvos), 1961
The despair of death. In the religious painting of the West and the peaceful and full of hope orthodox iconography, 1961
A great sign, the miracles of Thermi were sung, 1962
Seas, boats and sailors, 1977
Castrologos, 1977
Blessed Refuge, 1985
Small festive, 1985
Giants humbled; a selection of newspaper articles about saints, 1991
II. Translations
Leonida Ouspensky, The Image; A few words about its doctrinal meaning; Translated by Fotis Kontoglou, 1952
Charles Johnson, The Famous Corsairs; Translated by Fotis Kontoglou, 1942
