Theodoros (Papadimitriou)

He studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1952-1957) in the Michalis Tombros workshop. In 1959 he went to Paris on a Greek state scholarship, continuing his studies there until 1962 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Marcel Gimond and Rene Collamarini. He also learned the use of metal at the Academie du Feu and attended seminars concerned with the urban environment at Camelot and Bodiansky’s architectural workshop. In order to broaden his artistic education he travelled to many European countries, Japan and then the USA, where in 1972 he taught Sculpture as a visiting professor at California State University at Hayward. In 1974 he settled permanently in Greece and in 1980 was elected Professor of the Plastic Arts at the Architectural School of the National Technical University, a position he held until 1998.

In 1961 he exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Realites Nouvelles in the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris and the following year at the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture held at the Rodin Museum; he was to repeatedly exhibit his works at these Salons. His active participation in important group and international shows also continued with appearances, among others, at the Sao Paulo and Alexandria Biennales in 1963, the Youth Biennale in Paris in 1965, where he received the Rodin Prize, the III International Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture at the Rodin Museum in 1966, the Brussels Europalia in 1982, the Sculpture Symposium at the Olympic Park in Seoul in 1988, the “Metamorphoses of the Modern” exhibition presented at the National Gallery of Athens in 1992, and the Salon of Montrouge in France in 1997, where he also received an award. He has also had numerous solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad, the first at the Centre Culturel National, in Aix-en-Provence in 1965. In 1984 a retrospective of his work was presented at the National Gallery.

In 1983 he constructed a set/environment for Euripides’ “Phoenissae” at the ancient theater at Epidaurus. His compositions also ornament banks, hotels and private residences.

The artist’s earliest compositions, made of steel or bronze, were experiments connected to equilibrium and hearken back to Dadaist or Surrealist models. Gradually he added iron, stone, marble, glass, plexiglass, wood, rope, cloth, and rubber to the materials he employed, and also made use of water, fire and sand. At the same time, the function of his work changed. The base was gradually done away with and the compositions broken into parts. An endeavor was also made for a more immediate and freer form of expression, making use of various kinds of performances, with a particular focus placed on audience participation.

A sculptor whose interests and quests are also conducted on a theoretical level, he has published many texts in newspapers and periodicals, and is the author of several books, such a “Ένας γλύπτης στην αγορά” (Athens 1981), “Στίγματα πορείας” (Athens 1984), “Ίχνη” (Athens 1988), “Ένας γλύπτης στον αέρα” (Athens 1989), “Ανα-Κατάληψη” (Athens 1992).