Education
Studied with Edwin Dickinson and George Grosz. Columbia University, Bachelor of Fine Arts (1956) and Master of Fine Arts (1958). He pursued graduate work in philosophy with Robert Denoon Cumming and Albert Hofstadter and studied extensively with art historian Meyer Schapiro.
After earning his Master of Fine Arts, in 1958 Golfinopoulos had his first one-man show at Collette Roberts’ Grand Central Moderns Gallery, and began teaching part-time at Columbia’s School of Fine Arts.
Career
His paintings are marked by a variety of highly individualistic modes. Served for three years in the United States. Air Force. Art Students League of New York, 1950–1951.
Golfinopoulos’s main interests were philosophy and art history.
After leaving Columbia, Golfinopoulos remained in contact with Schapiro, their conversations were influential to his development. Offered tenure in 1968, feeling that the increase in hours and responsibility would interfere with painting, he decided to leave.
Later, he accepted an offer from Stuart Klonis, then head of the Art Students League, to teach one afternoon a week. He maintains that commitment to the present day, seeing it as an ethical imperative.
In Egan he found someone whose connection to history, and whose understanding and respect for art, made him an ideal guide for a young artist.
Through Egan he met art historian H. H. Arnason and art critic Harris Rosenstein, whose aesthetic convictions and ongoing conversations provided additional grounding and moral support. His friendship with Egan continued after the gallery closed in 1972. Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, District of Columbia Corcoran Gallery, Washington, District of Columbia Brooklyn Museum of Art
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
University of Iowa Museum of Art (housed at the Figge Art Museum)
Rhode Island School of Design
Golfinopoulos’s works are in numerous private and corporate collections.