Panagiotis C. Laskaridis was born in Athens in 1947. Me initiative of his father, Konstantinos Laskaridis, his Ph.D Institute of Hydrobiology and Limnology of the 'Company of Emperor Wilhelm' (today the Max-Planck Institute), is registered at the German School of Athens (Deutsche Schule Athen / Dörpfeld Gymnasium). With the completion of his circular studies, he departs for Germany. He is a student in the School of Mechanical Engineering University of Technology Braunschweig, city of Saxony. Clearly interest in the sea and shipping, continues his studies in Great Britain, obtaining two postgraduate degrees (Master in Science) from leading universities of old Albion, the King's College London and the University College London (University Collage London). In the first he studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and in the second in the department Shipbuilders of the British Navy. Returning to Greece, devotes himself to the family shipping business. With the with the help of his younger brother, Thanasis, the business grows rapidly. Laskaridis Shipping Co. Ltd. is one of the leading in Greece and in the world.
Despite his tireless involvement in shipping and business, Panagiotis C. Laskaridis channels his love for the sea into various other fields. Tireless historian leans into research and gradually organizes one of the most brilliant collections of travel literature of the Eastern Mediterranean. His love for the sea is not limited to written documents, but also transmutes into the world of art. The collection of sea paintings by Constantinos Volanakis is a striking example.
The K. Volanakis collection of works by Panagiotis C. Laskaridis began its journey around 1990, when the collector acquired the work 'Bringing Fish'. The influence of the Munich School, the imaginativeness of the waterfront, the life in the harbor, the peaceful moorings, the calm fishing scenes, the departures, the power of color and light in monumental scenes such as the 'Burning of the Turkish Frigate', a vivid explosion, as well as the evening colors that modern art historians have compared with the dynamics of the famous British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851), fascinate the collector and the collection is gradually enriched. The collection of Volanakis works by P. C. Laskaridis now numbers 53 works and continues to grow.
As the largest private collection of Volanakis works, it is a point of reference in the world of Modern Greek Art and Greek historiography. It has attracted the interest, domestic and global, of several historians, museums and museologists. In addition to the participation of individual works in various exhibitions, large exhibitions have been organized around the entire collection, most recently the one at the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, Konstantinos Volanakis: Nostos tis thalassas, works from the collection of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, which gathered rave reviews critics.
Today, Volanakis' encounter with the immensity of the sea, as noted by art historian Thodoris Koutsoyiannis, meets the collector's vision, a vision sculpted with the desire of his wife, Marilena Laskaridis, and co-founder of the Aikaterinis Laskaridis Foundation, for the immensity of knowledge. As a modern Maikina, in the literal meaning of the term, Panagiotis C. Laskaridis 'donates' his personal collection of sea paintings of Konstantinos Volanakis to the digital age.
The following digital art gallery lists the entire Volanakis collection of Panagiotis C. Laskaridis for free to the general public. With rich explanatory entries, updated bibliography and of course the oil paintings, the presentation of the works of K. Volanakis aspires to pass on to younger generations the collector's love for the sea.
The P. C. Laskaridis art collection is not limited to the sea paintings of Konstantinos Volanakis. It extends to a number of other seascapes, with examples of leading painters, such as those of Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsk (1817-1900). These projects will be progressively posted on the website of the Aikaterinis Laskaridis Foundation.
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