Summary:
The term “tapestry” derives from the French word “tapisserie”. According to Ioannis Faitakis, tapestry is simply “textile art”, a form of painting using threads. This explains perhaps why his work was supported by prominent painters of his time, who offered him their designs for free. Faitakis was born in 1926 and died in 2012 in the town of Neapolis, in Agios Nikolaos, Crete. Having dropped out of the Athens Law School, he attended courses at the School of Fine Arts until 1956, studying next to Yannis Moralis and Yannis Tsarouchis. In 1960, at the encouragement of Tsarouchis and Rena Andreadis, he moved to Paris financed by the Royal Welfare Fund to attend specialized courses at the Manufacture Nationale de Gobelins and the École de Tapisseries d’Aubusson. The first and only tapestry workshop in Greece opened after his return to the country in 1961, under the auspices of the Royal Welfare Fund. The workshop was located at 16 Papadiamantopoulou St., in Ilisia. There, he went about teaching the secrets of the trade to “his girls”, who were “pure gold for Greece”, had “divine hands”, and “were among the best artisans in the world”. He was inspired by the greek tradition, the byzantine art and the European art of the 20th century. He was unknown for many years.
