Alexander Iolas
| Alexander Iolas | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Constantine Koutsoudis 23 March 1907 Alexandria, Egypt |
| Died | 8 June 1987 (aged 80) New York City, United States |
| Cause of death | AIDS related |
| Nationality | Greek, American (naturalized) |
Alexander Iolas or Alexandre Iolas (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Ιόλας; born Κωνσταντίνος Κουτσούδης Constantine Koutsoudis; 25 March 1907 – 8 June 1987) was a Greek gallerist and collector. He owned galleries in the United States and Europe and contributed in many private and public art collections.
He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on March 25, 1907, to Andreas and Persephone Coutsoudis. In 1924, he went to Berlin as a pianist, but soon started studying ballet. He fled to Paris during Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s where he continued to study dance and socialized with artists such as Jean Cocteau, Giorgio de Chirico,Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, René Magritte and Max Ernst. There he bought his first work of art. As a dancer he toured extensively in Europe, the United States and Latin America with Theodora Roosevelt and later with the company formed by the Marquis George de Cuevas.
In 1944, he gave up ballet after an injury and got involved with the art world. In New York, he became the director of the Hugo Gallery, founded in 1944 by Robert Rothschild, Elizabeth Arden and Maria dei Principi Ruspoli Hugo. There, Andy Warhol had his first solo exhibition Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote (June 16 – July 3, 1952)
After working at the Hugo Gallery, he founded the Jackson-Iolas Gallery in 1955 with former dancer, Brooks Jackson and later opened and operated a chain of art galleries under his own name in New York, Paris, Milan, Rome (Galleria Iolas-Galatea), Geneva (Galerie Iolas-Engelberts), Madrid (Galería Iolas-Velasco) and Athens (Iolas-Zoumboulakis Gallery).
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