Faidon Patrikalakis

Phaedon Patrikalakis (1935-2017) was born in Drama on September 8, 1935. He studied at the Vakalo School and in Paris at the Academie Julian, Academie du Feu under the guidance of Jabot, and the Ecole de Dessin Applique a la Mode Historique. Since 1960, his works have been showcased in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He was also involved in set and costume design. His first work was the set design for "Blood Wedding" at the "Alliance Francaise" (1960) in Paris, where he worked from 1961 to 1964, collaborating with the "Theatre de poche." In London, he was associated with Beckett, although their collaboration did not materialize; instead, he designed sets and costumes for the "Old Witch" theater. Upon returning to Greece, he worked with the "Art Theater" of Karolos Koun (1967-1973), the National Theatre of Northern Greece (1970), the "Stoa Theater" (1971), the Karezi-Kazakou Theater (1973-1974), participating in the iconic "Our Great Circus," the "Open Theater" (1975), the Thessalian Regional Theater, among others, and continued to create sets and costumes for the Karezi Theater until his later years. He authored 34 books on painting, music, set design, theater, poetry, novels, and travel experiences. His books include: "Mount Athos," an album with texts and oil pastels; "The Stone of the Sling," Egnatia 1980; "Phaedon," an album, Athens 1982; "History of Set Design, 19th-20th Century" (Volume B), Aigokeros 1984; "Traveling in Paint," Forkys 1985; "The Realistic, the Erotic, and the Transcendental in Painting (13th-18th Century)," Aigokeros 1988; "A Transcendental Event," Kastaniotis 1988; "India, a Country Where People Fly and Birds Walk," Aigokeros 1989; "Elephant in a Monastery," Kastaniotis 1990; "History of Set Design, 15th-19th Century (Volume A)," Aigokeros 1992; "They Healed with Music," Kastaniotis 1993, 2nd edition 1994; "The Course and Vision of Byzantine Painting," Parousia 1995; "Yemen, The Sweet Ease of the Sun in a Crystal Universe," Aigokeros 1996; "The Great Colors, A Fictional Biography of Theophanes the Cretan," Parousia 1998; "Hatred is Not Honey That Runs Out," Kedros 1998. In recent years, ten of his books were published by Mandragoras: "The Abduction of Velvet, Designs and Words" (2001), "Legato," poems (2004), "The Baroque in the Princely Courts of the 17th and 18th Centuries," a study (2006), "On the Edge of the Day," Poems & Designs (2008), "The Painting of Music and the Music of Painting," Poetic texts on the convergence of painting and music (2009), "A Sight for Sore Eyes," a novel (2011), "From Silence," Poetry (2014), "I, Joseph Sinan," a novel (2015), "The Magical World of Painting" (2016), with autobiographical texts and others related to his journey in the "magical world" of painting, the poetic "Winged Waters" (2016), and finally the narrative "The Peace of Drama" (2017). In June 2016, the Municipality of Drama, D.E.K.PO.T.A., and the Archaeological Museum of Drama organized a series of events for Phaedon Patrikalakis: a major painting exhibition titled "Winged" at the Melina Hall, presentations, interventions, and poetry readings at the Archaeological Museum, which also hosted an exhibition of F.P.'s costumes and models from ancient drama performances. He passed away on November 13, 2017.