Gregory Kondos photographed at The Crocker Art Museum then reimagined.
The Legacy Project Honorees See the Flipping Book of Portraits.
Gregory Kondos was born in 1923 in Lynn, Massachusetts, his parents where immigrants from Greece and his passion for art started since his early age.
As a 19 year old he joined the navy and served in the pacific theater during WW2. After managing to survive the horrors of the war he enrolled the Sacramento City College and later received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Art at the California State University at Sacramento.
He was also professor at the City College for almost 3 decades and he founded and managed the campus gallery until his retirement in 1982.
His perspective towards his art was shaped while he visited his parent’s homeland Greece in 1960, he was fascinated by the colors, the sunset and the nature that he saw there.
He paints mostly landscapes and his approach to his work is that ‘ simple is always better’ which can be seen in his many masterpieces he created during his fruitful carrier. He always tries do depict the nature as is, even though he says that it can never be achieved but he always tries to do it.
He admires Paul Gauguin and Cezanne whom he considers as his inspirations for his interest to start painting, and some of their influence can be seen in his paintings. He says that anyone who can draw can become a painter because if you can’t draw then you can’t be artist or a painter. His friends and family describe him as nice, friendly and soft-spoken person that is always doing something and he is always busy. He is 90 years old now but he is still active and he paints, he is well respected member of the Sacramento community and there is a street named after him.
Kondos is among the most important American contemporary artists and he has won countless Awards during his carrier but he has always been humble and that’s why people love him so much.
As one of the West’s foremost landscape artists for over 40 years Kondos has traveled the world painting landscapes as inspiring as Yosemite Valley, the French countryside and the islands of Greece. His signature works of the Sacramento Delta have become modern classics that boldly capture its sweeping beauty.
His early work was influenced by abstract expressionists such as William de Kooning and his work in this style won prizes at the Winter Invitationals at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Later, he met Wayne Thiebaud who became a close friend and inspired the “painterly realism” that continues to distinguish Greg’s body of work.
Highly collected and widely shown, his style continues to evolve as new landscapes are captured in his palette of simple yet vibrant colors. His lifelong achievements place him in the great tradition of American landscape painters that includes Albert Bierstadt, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe. His paintings take light from the Impressionists, form and structure from Cezanne, and energy and painterly power from the abstract expressionists. Wayne Thiebaud once described Greg’s paintings as “eloquently caressed landscapes of sweeping distances that transport us …”
Gregory Kondos’ work, including giclée prints, are always available at the Smith Gallery and K Street Gallery.
We asked Gregory a few questions:
What are the 3 important things you would include in your things-still-to-do list? Only one, to walk easier.
What is the one thing that you love the most about yourself? My energy because I’m always painting. I’m home most of the time and I love the activity of painting.
What moves you and or touches you about your community? I love to help children and students understand more about art. I love one-on-ones with children and giving to things that benefit and educate them.
What are you most proud of? My family and my art.
What gets you up in the morning? Hunger!
If you have a completely free day what would you CHOOSE to do with it? I would paint and sight see. I love to draw and sketch on location.
What are you most passionate about? Being in front of my easle.
Do you have a childhood memory when you knew the essence of who you’d grow up to be? I learned to love the Sacramento River by fishing. My dad and I had a boat we loved to go out on every week. My connection to the river is relative to my landscape painting.
Are you surprised because your career is a happy accident or are you delighted because it’s what you always wanted? After the navy art was what I wanted. So after WWII I was able to use the GI bill to go back to school to become an artist.
