Why I Collect: Irene Panagopoulos

The Magna Marine Inc. CEO wanted to be an artist. Now she’s one of Greece’s most significant patrons

When you’re young and wonder what you will become when you grow up, you never say ‘collector.’ I wanted to become an artist. This was my first instinct as a child, I was always drawing. Eventually I stopped: The world was spared my artistic efforts! I now manage the family business, but in my body the artist is still there. My collection is very artist-centric: I collect particular artists, not particular works. This is how it has evolved. It’s not for investment or speculation. Art makes me happy.

I grew up in a house overflowing with art. My parents collected works by Greek artists who nowadays are considered important modern artists, such as the sculptor and painter Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika and the painter Yiannis Moralis, who were part of a generation that came of age in the 1930s and 1940s. But owning modern art wasn’t common practice. My friends would look at the art in our house and say: ‘Your parents are crazy!’ My father also collected oriental carpets – we had them rolled up all over the house – and antique maps. I received a few paintings from him. It didn’t occur to me to collect art myself then. I started going to gallery openings in Athens and, at some point, I was so impressed with particular artists, I started adding to my father’s collection with works by contemporary Greek artists, some living abroad, such as Jannis Kounellis and Lucas Samaras. Then I began traveling, going to galleries and fairs. I moved into collecting systematically from 2006.

Jannis Kounellis, Untitled, 1986. Courtesy of Irene Panagopoulos.

I wasn’t acquiring works to put in a specific place, I was acquiring them to make a story. One work would be in dialogue with something else. I was entranced by certain artists, such as Etel Adnan, Kader Attia, Mona Hatoum, and Kiki Smith. I was very interested to see how they were developing in their careers and what their next step was going to be, while acquiring previous works, too. I would look for the story of an artist, watch their evolution. That’s when you become a collector. That, or when you run out of space and have to store things!

I’m interested in artists whose sensitivities reflect my own concerns and questions. I’m looking to understand people, what makes them evil and what makes them good. I’m looking at women and how they cope with issues around femininity, love, sex, and relationships with others. I’m looking at trauma and ways to heal.

Kiki Smith, Me in a Corner, 2005. Courtesy of Irene Panagopoulos.

I studied art in California, at Mills College. My main teacher was the Abstract Expressionist painter and photographer Jay DeFeo. She made a big impact on my life and taught me how to look at things. I was making mainly sculpture and photography. I have photographs in my collection now, including works by Vik Muniz, Thomas Struth, and Wolfgang Tillmans. I also love paper, and when I was at Mills they had a very important book arts program. The medium captivated me. I learned how to make books myself. It’s perhaps also how I became a collector. In a sense, the first artworks that I acquired were in book form, and they were affordable, too. I could buy them even as a student. They were small and intimate, and I could move them anywhere. Now there are artists’ books in my collection by Samaras, Yto Barrada, Anselm Kiefer, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, and many more.

I’ve since run out of wall space, and only a small proportion of my collection is on view in my home at any given time. But there are parts of it everywhere at home and work. Some are by my favorites, such as Kounellis, the great Arte Povera artist. I happened to visit him at his studio in Rome, just a month before he died. It made a big impression to see the personal elements that meant so much to his identity – the steel, the cloth bags containing food, the coffee grounds – scattered all over his studio. At home, I have my personal favorites, such as the Elizabeth Peyton portrait of Lord Byron – I love Byron’s romantic poetry. That painting hangs in the company of works by Tracey Emin and Barbara Hepworth.

I am not just a collector, though. I’m also a patron, a role I take very seriously. In Greece, the current art scene is progressing slowly. There is not enough funding for contemporary art, so I support artists to have exhibitions and to be seen. I have supported contemporary shows at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, the Greek Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. There are many needs in a country with a financial crisis, but collectors and patrons try to keep the art scene alive. I also find pleasure in being on museum boards and councils, such as Dia Art Foundation and Tate International Council, traveling and looking at the world through art. We have access to museums, private collections, and certain works that may not easily be seen otherwise and rarely go on public view. We study the cultures of people through their collections. Art gives us incentives to talk about current affairs. It gives you another way of looking at things. Art completes my life.

Skye Sherwin is an art writer based in Rochester, UK. She contributes regularly to The Guardian and numerous art publications.

Top image: Barbara Hepworth, Pelagos (detail), 1961. Courtesy of Irene Panagopoulos.