Denys Zacharopoulos

Denys Zacharopoulos (born 1952 in Athens, Greece) is an art historian and theorist. He works as Professor for Art history, author and curator, amongst others at the 48th Biennale in Venice and documenta IX in Kassel (Germany).

Biography

Denys Zacharopoulos studied music in Athens and from 1970 in France literature, semantics and philosophy, followed by history and sociology of the arts and in literature. His teachers were Jean Cassou, Gaëtan Picon, Marin and Roland Barthes. He lived in France and became a French citizen. Since 2000, he lives in Greece.

In 1975, Denys Zacharopoulos became program coordinator of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. He then spent time in New York and taught as Professor in the Academies of Fine arts in Geneva, Vienna and Amsterdam.

During this period he forged intensive personal contacts to many contemporary artists of his generation, in particular to James Welling, Matt Mullican, Ernst Caramelle, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Juan Munoz, Thomas Schütte and Reinhard Mucha.

Professional activities

Denys Zacharopouls' first major works centered on the Arte Povera movement. He curated a long series of exhibitions in major museums in Europe and the US. Since 2001 he published extensively and curated intensively many exhibitions on the artistic production and the issue of Avantgarde in Greece in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.

• Director of the Domaine de Kerguehennec, in France (1992–1999)
• Co-Director with Jan Hoet of documenta IX in Kassel, Germany (1992)
• General inspector for contemporary art in the French Ministry for Culture (1999)
• Curator of the French Pavilion at the 48th Biennale in Venice (1999)
• Professor at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunste in Amsterdam, Holland (1996–2005)
• Professor for art history and art theory at the Aegean University in Lesvos, Greece (2000)
• Artistic director of the Macedonian Museums for Contemporary Art, Thessalonica (2006).

Publications

Since 1977 art critiques in Artforum ( N.Y.); Artistes (Paris); Arti (Athens); Parkett (Zurich); Furor (Geneva); Faces (Geneva); Museumjournal (Amsterdam); Art e Dossier (Rome); Artstudio (Paris); Juliett (Trieste); Acrobat Mime Parfait (Bologna); Teuchos and Artime (both Athens).

Numerous catalogues and theoretical publications listed in Zacharopoulos' bibliography, with particular emphasis on the following artists: Gerhard Richter, Mario Merz, Gilberto Zorio, Iannis Kounellis, Per Kirkeby, Eugene Leroy, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pat Steir, Carl Andre, Pierpaolo Calzolari, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Marina Abramovic, Lothar Baumgarten, Marisa Merz, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Matt Mullican, Thomas Schütte, Jan Vercruysse, Helmut Dorner, Geylan Gerber,[Harald Klingelhöller, Franz West, Jim Lutes, Tadashi Kawamata, Reinhard Mucha, Adrian Schiess, Herbert Brandl, Jimmy Durham, Michel François, Eran Schaerf, Xavier Noiret-Thomé.

• Denys Zacharopoulos/Ulrich Look, "Gerhard Richter", S.Schreiber, Munich, 1984
• "Reinhard Mucha: Das Figur/Grund Problem in der Architektur des Barocks", Kunstverein, Stuttgart 1985.
• "Per Kirkeby", Musée Saint-Pierre, Lyon, 1987
• "Gerhard Richter", Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris 1991.
• "Jean-Marc Bustamante", Kröller-Müller, Otteloo, 1994
• "Per Kirkeby", Arts Club, Chicago, 2007

Awards & Honors

• Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic
• Cross of Honor for the Arts and Sciences of the Republic of Austria

Persondata
Name	Zacharopoulos, Denys
Alternative names
Short description	Greek art historian
Date of birth	1952
Place of birth	Athens
Date of death
Place of death