Artist’s CV
The painter Kostas Malamos (1913-2007), born in Alexandria but originally from Zitsa, where he lived a carefree childhood, continues the glorious tradition of the patriots of Epirus. Loving his village, he planned to create a remarkable collection of works by Greek painters and engravers, with the ultimate goal of exhibiting them in a gallery of modern Greek engravings in the Greek region. He thus covered a well-known gap in the Greek reality, the non-existence of a public engraving museum, and in fact seriously thinking about cultural decentralization. Thus, he believed that he could contribute, with the limited means he had, to the artistic development of his country.
As the initial core of the collection of engravings he envisioned he considered the few works he had in his possession, gifts from fellow artists; the next engravings he would choose from offers of friends and artist acquaintances or buy them to give away! The struggle of getting the projects together: the joys did not always compensate for the disappointments. Despite the difficulties, he managed to treasure representative engravings by Greek artists from the 19th century onwards, without missing important older names and ignoring the efforts of other newer ones. Notice also the engravings of Greek painters, both the oldest and the newest. His collection presents a wide range of printmaking techniques and methods, from woodcut and copper engraving to lithography and screen printing. At the same time, the multitude of topics and trends in the projects it includes is demonstrated.
With the collection of engravings he created, Kostas Malamos left a set of high historical and artistic level in his place. His collection will work in an educational way, being in a distant area full of natural beauty, a pole of attraction for the art-loving visitor.
Curriculum vitae:
He was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1913. In the same year, with the liberation of Epirus, he returned with his parents to Ioannina. He lived his childhood years in his village, Zitsa. At primary school, one of the teachers who discovered his inclination to painting was Sotiris Daglis, father of the engraver, friend and fellow villager of Christos Daglis.
In 1931 he came to Athens with a scholarship from the Anastasiou Philitis Foundation and the following year he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts with Pavlos Mathiopoulos as his first teacher and then Umbertos Argyros and Konstantinos Parthenis. In September 1933 he held his first art exhibition in Ioannina.
