Babis Retzepopoulos (1940-2002)

«Ideas and Incidents»

A Retrospective

CULTURAL FOUNDATION OF TINOS

Opening: Saturday June 7, at 20:30

Duration: June 7 – September 15, 2025

Curated by Christoforos Marinos

From June 7 to September 15, 2025, the Cultural Foundation of Tinos organizes the retrospective exhibition of Babis Retzepopoulos (1940-2002). The exhibition, “Ideas and Incidents”, brings together works from 1957 to 1994, along with four works by engraver A. Tassos, who was Retzepopoulos’ tutor at Doxiadis School.

The painter, printmaker, and graphic artist Babis Retzepopoulos was born at a time when light was battling darkness. He came into the world on 27 December 1940, in Athens – two months after the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War and shortly before his country was occupied by Axis forces. This archetypal duality – light and darkness, light in darkness, the journey from darkness into light – would become the backbone of his creative thought and practice.

From his earliest paintings, Retzepopoulos impressed with his mastery of colour and, above all, his willingness to experiment. His compositions are well-crafted, solid, and multi-layered, much like the prints he would later create. Looking at his paintings from 1960–63, one might say that this young artist treated human figures like still lifes and still lifes like living entities. In the years that followed, he applied himself almost exclusively to printmaking, graphic design, and the decoration of commercial spaces in Athens.

When he returned to painting, during his time living in Paris (1967–73) now signing his works as “Ch. Babis R.”, his compositions differed significantly from those of the early 1960s. His palette became softer, while his focus shifted towards the movement of volumes and the relationships they formed – how they interpenetrated, creating depth and the illusion of three-dimensional space. These works resemble schematic city maps.

Of the woodcuts he created while living in Athens during his studies at the Doxiadis School and beyond (1962–67), around twenty are known to us. During his time in Paris (1968–73) and in the early years of Greece’s post-dictatorship period (1975–78), after settling on Tinos, where he run the “To Magazi” gallery with Lefteris Kritikos, he produced forty more figurative woodcuts. Retzepopoulos’s printmaking developed a new and more profound relationship with light when, in the late 1980s, he adopted an abstract approach – a bold, original technique distinguished by its poetic quality. He located trunks of ancient olive trees and used their perforated cross-sections as printing blocks, meticulously smoothing their surfaces beforehand. This departure from traditional pear or linden wood blocks and from carving directly into the wood prioritised chance over control. Printing on large-format sheets of paper, reaching up to 150 centimetres in height or width, he created six distinct series over a five-year period.

A defining characteristic of Retzepopoulos’s abstract prints is their interplay of light and darkness – between the black of the printed form and the white of Japanese paper. Here, printmaking becomes a game, a variation on a theme. What might A. Tassos (1914–1985) have thought had he seen the abstract prints of his gifted pupil? The renowned printmaker, too, depicted tree trunks in 1950 (two anthropomorphic olive trees that appear to be dancing) and again in 1980–81. However, the difference is that in his abstract works, he does not simply depict trunks – the tree is not the sole subject of the work. In his hands, the wooden trunk becomes a stamp, a means of expression, a representational tool, and a source – a metaphor for the body, for the relationship between printmaking and music, dance, and grief. These works, which celebrate the colour black at a time when colour reigns supreme, bring printmaking closer to painting, revealing its expansive nature.

According to Filippos Pierros, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cultural Foundation of Tinos:

“The Cultural Foundation of Tinos has once again the great pleasure of hosting the works of renowned printmaker and painter Babis Retzepopoulos. The “Ideas and Incidents” exhibition, first presented at the City of Athens Art Gallery, includes works from the 1957-1994 period. In the retrospective context of this event, it also includes four works by the printmaker A. Tassos, who was Retzepopoulos’ teacher at the Doxiadis School.

His paintings fascinate with their pure colours, as earthy depictions, the tender style of a singular post-cubism in the idiom of Picasso and Youla Chapoval, his Byzantinesque hues. His compositions challenge you to investigate the spirit, to guess, to decode the abstract configurations and finally to assemble the massages of a restless but innovative artistic soul. It has been written that his creations allude to the style of Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika. In my own humble opinion, they allude to an anguished effort to compound planes, cross sections and overlaps into a structured yet abstract whole. At the same time, Retzepopoulos’ woodcuts exude an expressive Greece, a vivid Tinos, a dancing temperament of symmetry and harmonious dialogue between black and white. They invite the viewer into a dialogue, into « associative thoughts » in pursuit of forms and messages. His iconic creations – “Dance”, “Form”, “Encounters”, “Musical Instrument” – are unique poetic expressions, both in technical terms and in terms of artistic ethos.

With this exhibition, the Cultural Foundation of Tinos resurrects for the second time, albeit temporarily – after the first successful exhibition in 2008 –, “To Magazi” (The Shop) art gallery, which accommodated and showcased the genius of Babis Retzepopoulos and enriched the cultural reserves of our blessed island. It is, we believe, the best way to pay our respects to the great artist while, at the same time, preserving his contribution to art in historical memory.”

Babis Retzepopoulos (1940–2002) was born and lived in Athens. He began his artistic training with drawing classes at the studio of Panos Sarafianos and Vrassidas Vlachopoulos (1957–60) before studying Graphic Arts at the School of Decorative Arts of the Athens Technological Institute (1960–63) under A. Tassos. He later pursued advanced studies in fine arts and printmaking techniques (Cours supérieurs d’arts et de techniques graphiques) at the École Estienne in Paris (1967–68). His solo exhibitions include: “Woodcuts”, Banque Commerciale pour l’Europe du Nord (BCEN), Paris, 1968; “Woodcuts”, Nuits des Puces, Paris, 1969, 1970; “Woodcuts”, To Magazi, Tinos, 1976, 1978; “A Stroll Since 1962 – Woodcuts”, Ekfrasi Gallery, Glyfada, 1988; “Babis R. – Woodcuts”, French Institute, Thessaloniki, 1990; “The Last ‘Stroll’ – Woodcuts”, Cultural Centre, City of Athens Cultural Organisation (PODA), Athens, 2004; “Promenade Among Unfamiliar Forms – Gravures sur bois de Babis Retzepopoulos”, Paris, 2005; “Encountering Babis Retzepopoulos: Painting – Printmaking”, Tinos Cultural Foundation, Tinos, 2008; “Ideas and Incidents”, City of Athens Art Gallery, Athens, 2025. In 1975, together with his close friend Lefteris Kritikos, he founded the historic gallery “To Magazi” in Chora, Tinos. His works are held in the National Library of France (Prints Department), the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, the American College of Greece, and private collections across Europe and the USA.

The exhibition is kindly supported by the A. Tassos Visual Arts Society

CULTURAL FOUNDATION OF TINOS
GR-842 00, Tinos
Τ: (+30)22830 29070, Fax: (+30)22830 29134,

e-mail: [email protected],  www.itip.gr

Opening Hours
Monday, Wednesday & Thursday: 9:00 – 14:30

Friday – Sunday: 10:00 – 14:00 & 19:00 – 21:30