The painter and musician Maria Pop was born in Neo Faliro in 1925 and passed away in Athens in 2009. She was the daughter of the Spanish violinist and orchestra conductor Josef Bustidui —who served as a director and maestro for the Athens State Orchestra—and the musician Eleni Georgantopoulou. She was also the sister of the prose writer and translator Juia Iatridi, and the wife of the lawyer Konstantinos Pop.
Following in her parents’ footsteps, she studied music at the Athens Conservatoire and drama at the National Theatre Drama School. In her paintings, since 1952, she captured her subjects with a naive technique, primarily using tempera, but later using gouache and oil as well. Her themes included Metaxourgeio, Monastiraki, Psiri, Hydra, Nafplio, and her beloved Aegina, where she spent many months out of the year. She also painted neoclassical and traditional buildings, cafes, alleys beneath the Acropolis, old houses with their courtyards and trees, as well as memories from her travels to Spain. She went on numerous educational trips to Spain, Italy, France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Switzerland, and worked at the Spanish Embassy in Athens.
As a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, the Women’s Art Society, and the International Federation for Women’s Education (Greek Chapter), she regularly participated in their exhibitions. She held solo exhibitions in Athens (Zygos 1965, Astor 1971, Ora 1977, 1994, Argo 1984, Skoufa Gallery 1989, 1993, 1999, 2009, and the Spanish Cultural Institute 1984) and elsewhere (Volos 1981, Touring Club of Thessaloniki 1968). She participated in group exhibitions (e.g., Panhellenic Exhibitions 1960, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1987, Alexandria Biennale 1974, Paris, Barcelona, London, Zurich, Vienna, and Nicosia).
Her works can be found in the National Gallery, the Ministries of Education and Culture, the Municipal Galleries of Thessaloniki, Ioannina, and Rhodes, as well as in private collections in Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, the USA, and Brazil.