Jannis Psychopedis was born in Athens in 1945. He studied printmaking at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1963 to1968 before undertaking a postgraduate degree in painting betweem 1971 and 1975 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich through the German Academic Exchange Service. Following graduation, he continued to live in Germany as a guest of the City of West Berlin Cultural Programme until 1986. Between 1994 and 2012, he taught at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Psychopedis is a founding member of the ‘Young Greek Realists’ group, active from 1971 to 1973. The collective promoted Critical Realism, a movement developed in Greece in the 1970s in opposition to the all-encompassing dogma of ‘Greekness’ (hellenekotita) in art. Several European social uprisings, like the May 1968 student rebellions in France, the Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia, and, of course, the coup d’état establishing the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 were catalysts for the movement’s inception.
The artist’s series, The Undelivered Letter, which began in 1977, exemplifies Psychopedis’ take on the genre. A visual diary of sorts, the works – reflective of his time in Berlin – draw from various sources, from the surroundings of Berlin to Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. In the 1980s, Psychopedis adopted the female nude as a temporary focus, stylistically captured through fuzzy colourful pencil work. More generally, the artist dons a critical commentary on his direct and indirect environment.
Several retrospective exhibitions of his work have been held in Greece (1987-88, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2009). In 2004, he created the large installation for the Eirini Station of the Athens metro. The Academy of Arts in West Berlin organised a large solo Psychopedis exhibition in 1981.
Psychopedis lives and works in Athens.
