Marios Angelopoulos, Konstantinos (Alexandria, August 1909 - Athens, November 22, 1995) was a highly talented Greek artist, painter, sketch artist, scenographer, stage and costume designer of theater and cinema, writer and poet, as well as a well-known philatelist and municipal councilor of the municipality of Athens.

He was born in Alexandria, Egypt in August 1909. He studied independently with Momir Koronovich and later with Periklis Byzantios as well as in art studios in London and Paris. He started his professional career as a permanent sketch artist for the Sunday edition of the newspaper "Elefthero Vima". He then became involved in theater staging and staged "Hail Nymph" by Gregorios Xenopoulos and "Les dessous de la robe" by Weber and Matisse (for the theater company of Aliki Vougiouklaki - Mousouri - Nezer - Gavrielides 1934). After that he embarked on a dynamic career, collaborating with all the theatre companies of Athens in the state and free theatres of Greece.

Before the Second World War, he staged Hamlet at the Old Vic Theatre in London with Laurence Olivier, while in 1937 he was appointed director of the technical workshops of Marika Kotopouli's Rex Theatre. He created the sets and costumes for about 420 theatrical works of prose, revue, melodrama and opera in state and independent theatres in Greece and Europe, including the London Open Air, the Arena di Verona, the Herodeion, the Plaza of Madrid, etc. At the same time, he directed films in Greece, England and France. His stage designs are estimated at 6.000 and his costume works (costumes) at ten times as many as his stage designs.

As a scenographer and costume designer he has also worked in France, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus. For a decade he collaborated with Kostas Mousouris (1952-1962), in numerous plays such as "The Diary of Anne Frank", "Street Scenes", "Invitation to the Tower". He also collaborated with the National Opera in "Aida", "Carmen" etc., at the Athens Festival, as well as in English and Greek films.

He participated in many Pan-Hellenic art exhibitions, both of scenography and painting, as well as in the International exhibitions of scenography in Oslo in 1954, Tokyo in 1956 and Athens in 1962. In 1963 he took part in the first World Exhibition of Scenography in Naples as the sole representative of Greece, following an invitation from the Italian government. He has been responsible for the decoration of many cinema halls, hotels, shops and homes in Athens, Cyprus and London.

Marios Angelopoulos was also active in literature and poetry. He wrote the plays "Babel", and "Achalinoti lefteria", he wrote his own poems and translated poems by Lorca. He also published a scrapbook of engravings of the landmarks of Athens.

A collector of Olympic stamps, he had participated as of 1971 in a number of philatelic exhibitions in Greece and abroad focusing on the "History of the Olympic Games". In 1977 he founded the Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and served as the first president.

He served as a councilor of the municipality of Athens from 1964 to 1967, where he was to remain after 1974. He served as a councilor to the municipality of Athens from 1964 to 1967, where he was to remain after 1974. He was also a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece (EETE), member of the Artistic Professional Chamber of Greece, member of the Association of Theatre Technicians of Greece, member of the World Union of Theatre Technicians, and member of many philatelic societies in Greece and abroad with a large and remarkable collection of stamps. He was awarded the Grigorios Xenopoulos Prize in 1954, the bronze medal of the Paris-based Société Academique "Arts-Sciences-Lettres" in 1966 and the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1981.

He also spoke Arabic, French, German, English and Italian and was a permanent resident of Athens. He died on the 22nd of November 1995 at the age of 86.

Theatrical plays

List of Greek theatrical plays in which Angelopoulos worked as scenographer and costume designer

All information is taken from the printed programme of each play and/or relevant press releases.

Sources

• "Who's Who 1979" page14
• P.D.Kagelaris, Dictionary of Greek Philotelists, Athens 1982, pages 19-20
• P.D.Kagelaris, Searches in Contemporary Greek Painting - The Kagelaris Collection, Athens 1999, vol.2, pages14-15 and 124
• "Periodical Biographical History and Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts", "EI" Magazine, vol. 8 1994 (Angelopoulos, Marios insert, page 24)

External links

• The painter and set designer Marios Angelopoulos passed away, Macedonia newspaper
• The sets of the plays performed at the "National Theatre" and "Aliki Theatre", review by Marios Angelopoulos, National Theatre archive
• Contemporary Greek Painting - The Kangelaris Collection Marios Angelopoulos (1909-1995)
• Collection at Municipal Art Gallery of Larissa

[[Category:Greek film directors]] [[Category:Greek scenic designers]] [[Category:Modern Greek poets]] [[Category:Greek dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Greek painters]] [[Category:Greek caricaturists]]