Dimosthenis Kokkinidis was born in Piraeus in 1929. The child of refugees, his family’s situation was already precarious, and worsened during the Metaxa dictatorship when Kokkinidis’ father was fired from the Piraeus Registry Office for his socialist political views, and later when he was arrested for being a communist under the German occupation. In this troubled context, the young Kokkinidis still found a way to fall in love with art, expressing an interest very early on. At school, his classmates nicknamed him ‘the artist’, and he would bring a drawing pad and sketch teachers or famous actors.
Initiating his academic path in 1950 with the more pragmatic choice of studying economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business (now the University of Economics), he enrolled two years later at the Athens School of Fine Arts where he studied until 1958 under Spyros Papaloukas and Giannis Moralis.
From 1959 to 1961, he worked at the newly founded Organization of Greek Handicrafts as head of the art department. In this context, he travelled to Italy and became engaged in Greek folk handicrafts and ceramics. This period was marked by collaboration and applied arts. Kokkinidis and his wife, esteemed painter Pepi Svoronou (1934–2011), designed objects and items for the domestic and international market, such as handmade household items and clothing. Collaboration manifested in the creation of groups or collectives. Kokkinidis was a founding member of Art Group A (1961–1967) and the Art Communication and Education Group (1976–1981). Later he would also become a member – to varying degrees of involvement – of many organisations, including the IKY – the Greek State Scholarships Foundation, Diapanepistimiako Kentro Anagnorisis Titlon Spoudon Allodapis (DIKATSA), the National Theatre, the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank (MIET) and the Society for the Study of Modern Greek Culture.
The 1960s were also the period of the first solo exhibitions, in Hydra (1961) and later Athens (1964), where he presented a painting with several abstract elements, with themes inspired by life in the popular neighbourhoods and islands. The painting was politically charged, which both aided and complicated his reputation as an artist.
The 1980s marked a change in that regard. Kokkinidis abandoned clear political references in favour of personal experiences, centred on nature and human communication. As a professor, he was known by his student to be a good communicator and in 1976, he was elected full professor at Athens School of Fine Arts, where he served as rector and vice-rector (1979–1982) and taught until 1997. Biographies and testimonies remember him as one of the institution’s favourite teachers of many generations of students who passed through his classroom.
A large retrospective of his work was organised in 1989 by the Macedonian Centre for Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki. Various books have also been published, as have his collected essays on art, in 2005, and a monograph on his work, in 2007.
Kokkinidis passed away in 2020.
